Objective: Osteosarcoma is a highly malignant osseous sarcoma with poor prognosis. Previous studies indicated that miRNA-30c may play an important role in the development of osteosarcoma, but its mechanism is not yet clear. The current research was carried out to explore the potential applications of miR-30c in the diagnosis and treatment of osteosarcoma.
Materials and methods: Real-time PCR and in situ hybridization were used to test the correlation between miR-30c and the onset of osteosarcoma. In vitro transfection of miR-30 mimic was used to test the effect of miR-30c on the development of osteosarcoma. Cell Counting Kit-8, formation of Petri dish clones, in vivo formation of tumor, flow cytometry tests and Transwell analysis were used to assess the effect of miR-330c on the metastatic potential and invasiveness of osteosarcoma.
Results: Reverse transcriptase-PCR analysis and in situ hybridization tests revealed that the expression of miR-30c was lower in the osteosarcoma tissue than in normal bone tissue (P <0.05). Low expression of miR-30c was associated with advanced osteosarcoma staging and low cellular differentiation. Multivariate analysis revealed that lower expression of miR-30c was associated with shorter survival of patients (P <0.01). U2OS cell growth was significantly inhibited when transfected with miR-30c mimic. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that overexpression of miR-30c could induce apoptosis of osteosarcoma cells. In vitro Petri dish cloning experiment showed that overexpression of miR-30c reduced the cloning ratio of U2OS cells from 21% to 7%. At the same time, overexpression of miR-30c inhibited the formation of sarcoma in nude mice. Transwell experiments indicated that overexpression of miR-30c could reduce the invasiveness of U2OS cells.
Conclusion: Low expression of miR-30c was associated with high probability of onset and aggressiveness of osteosarcoma and shorter patient survival. Upregulation of miR-30c could downregulate the invasiveness of osteosarcoma. Therefore, miR-30 can be used in the development of future diagnostic and therapeutic techniques.
Keywords: miRNA-30c, osteosarcoma, diagnosis, invasiveness, treatment