Effect of microRNA-100 on proliferation activity and cell cycle of hepatocarcinoma cells

AIM: To investigate the effect of microRNA-100(miR-100) on the proliferation activity and cell cycle of hepatocarcinoma cells.METHODS: Synthetic miR-100 mimic and its negative control were transfected into human hepatocarcinoma HepG2 cells by liposome method.After transfection,the cell counting kit-8(CCK-8) was used to measure the cell proliferation activity.The cell cycle distribution was determined by flow cytometry.The expression of Polo-like kinase 1(Plk1) at mRNA and protein levels was detected by quantitative real-time PCR(qRT-PCR) and Western blotting.RESULTS: The transfection efficiency mediated by cationic liposome was greater than 85%.The inhibitory rates of cell proliferation in HepG2 cells were(43.5±12.2)%,(46.5±3.7)% and(52.1±0.2)% at 24 h,48 h and 72 h after transfected with miR-100 mimic,respectively,which were significantly increased as compared with the control cells.Moreover,the cell proliferation index in experimental group(35.8 ± 1.4) was higher than that in negative control group(39.2 ± 1.0) and simple liposome group(40.7 ± 2.0) at 72 h.At the same time,the mRNA and protein expression levels of Plk1 obviously decreased in HepG2 cells transfected with miR-100 at 72 h after transfection.CONCLUSION: miR-100 suppresses the proliferation activity of hepatocarcinoma cells by down-regulating Plk1 gene expression.