Effects of miRNA-197 overexpression on proliferation, apoptosis and migration in levonorgestrel treated uterine leiomyoma cells.

Background/aims: Uterine leiomyoma is the ahead benign tumor of the female genital tract, which resulted in menstrual abnormalities, recurrent pregnancy loss, and other serious gynecological disorders in women. Recently, as the process of exploring the brief molecular mechanisms of tumorgenesis, microRNAs (miRNAs) have attracted much more attention.

Methods: In this study, we first confirmed that microRNA-197 (miR-197) was down-regulated significantly in human uterus leiomyoma by quantity real-time polymerase chain reaction, compared to normal uterus myometrium. Then we observed the potential effects of miR-197 overexpression on human uterus leiomyoma cells by cell counting kit 8, wound healing assay, and flow cytometric assessment separately.

Results: The data showed that miR-197 could inhibit cell proliferation, induce cell apoptosis, and block cell migration in vitro. Coincidently, levonorgestrel (LNG), a well-known uterus leiomyoma therapy, could induce miR-197 expression in human uterus leiomyoma cells, and over-expression of miR-197 showed a synergy effect on human uterus leiomyoma cell proliferation and apoptosis with LNG.

Conclusion: In this study, the data showed that miR-197 could play an anti-oncogenic role in human uterus leiomyoma cells, and cooperate with LNG on the cell proliferation and apoptosis, which suggested that miR-197 might be a potential target and provided database for clinical treatment.