Skip to main content
. 2016 Nov 3;7(49):80751–80764. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.13037

Figure 3. miR-22 inhibits migration and invasion of HCC cells through directly targeting YWHAZ expression.

Figure 3

(A) mRNA expression of YWHAZ in tumor tissues and adjacent normal tissues of HCC patients was revealed by mRNA-seq provided by TCGA. (B) Scatterplot depicts a significant inverse correlation between miR-22 and YWHAZ mRNA expression. (C) Normalized protein expression of YWHAZ in HCC patients with or without vascular invasion revealed by Reverse Phase Protein Array (RPPA) analysis. (D) Scatterplot depicts a significant inverse correlation between miR-22 and YWHAZ protein expression. (E) YWHAZ expression in normal liver cell line L0-2 and HCC cell lines MHCC97L and HCCLM9 was determined by qRT-PCR and western blotting. GAPDH was used as an internal control. (F) Effect of miR-22 inhibitor on YWHAZ expression was determined in MHCC97L cells. (G) Effect of miR-22 mimic on YWHAZ expression was determined in HCCLM9 cells. (H) miR-22 mimic significantly suppressed luciferase activity of YWHAZ containing a wild-type 3′-UTR, but showed no effect on activity of YWHAZ with a mutant 3′-UTR, whereas treatment with miR-22 inhibitor increased luciferase activity of YWHAZ. (I) Overexpression of YWHAZ partially rescued the inhibitory effects of miR-22 on migration and invasion of HCC cells. Scale bar represents 50 μm. Data are displayed as the Mean ± SD of three independent experiments. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.0001. (miR-NC: miR-22 negative control, WT: wild type; Mut: mutant type).