Overexpression of microRNA miR-30a or miR-191 in A549 lung cancer or BEAS-2B normal lung cell lines does not alter phenotype.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, noncoding RNAs (ribonucleic acids) that regulate translation. Several miRNAs have been shown to be altered in whole cancer tissue compared to normal tissue when quantified by microarray. Based on previous such evidence of differential expression, we chose to study the functional significance of miRNAs miR-30a and -191 alterations in human lung cancer.

Methodology/principal Findings: The functional significance of miRNAs miR-30a and -191 was studied by creating stable transfectants of the lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549 and the immortalized bronchial epithelial cell line BEAS-2B with modest overexpression of miR-30a or -191 using a lentiviral system. When compared to the corresponding controls, both cell lines overexpressing miR-30a or -191 do not demonstrate any significant changes in cell cycle distribution, cell proliferation, adherent colony formation, soft agar colony formation, xenograft formation in a subcutaneous SCID mouse model, and drug sensitivity to doxorubicin and cisplatin. There is a modest increase in cell migration in cell lines overexpressing miR-30a compared to their controls.

Conclusions/significance: Overexpression of miR-30a or -191 does not lead to an alteration in cell cycle, proliferation, xenograft formation, and chemosensitivity of A549 and BEAS-2B cell lines. Using microarray data from whole tumors to select specific miRNAs for functional study may be a suboptimal strategy.