MicroRNA-143 Inhibits Migration and Invasion of Human Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer and Its Relative Mechanism

BACKGROUND MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in many biological processes, including cancer development. Among those miRNAs, miR-143 shows tumor-suppressive activity in some human cancers. However, the function and mechanism of miR-143 in lung cancer cells remains unknown. Here we explored the role of miR-143 in lung cancer. RESULTS According to qRT-PCR, we found that miR-143 was notably down-regulated in 19 NSCLC tissues and 5 cell lines. In vitro experiments showed us that miR-143 could significantly suppress the migration and invasion of NSCLC cell lines while it had no effects on the growth of NSCLC cell lines, and in vivo metastasis assay showed the same results. Finally, we found that the mechanism of miR-143 inhibiting the migration and invasion of NSCLC might be through targeting CD44v3. CONCLUSIONS The up-regulated miR-143 in lung cancer could significantly inhibit cell migration and invasion, and this might work through targeting CD44v3, which was newly identified by us.