Abstract: Objective  To elucidate the impacts and targets of miR-150 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods  Heatmap analysis was utilized for screening the differentially expressed miRNAs between six sets of HCC tissues and adjacent liver tissues downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was employed for assessing miR-150 expression in HCC tissues and cell lines. Then, cell counting Kit-8 assay and Transwell assay separately were conducted to evaluate the proliferation, invasion and migration potential of HCC cells. Besides, TargetScan software was utilized for predicting the potential targets of miR-150. Moreover, the relationship between miR-150 and its target genes were determined by Western blotting and luciferase reporter assay. Results  We identified 31 deregulated miRNAs (including the most significantly down-regulated miR-150) in HCC tissues. MiR-150 expression was significantly reduced in HCC tissues and cell lines. Highly expressed miR-150 significantly increased the 5-year survival rate of HCC patients. Meanwhile, miR-150 induced a significant reduction of the cell proliferation, migration, and invasion potentials of human hepatocarcinoma cells (SMMC-7721and HepG2). We found miR-150 directly target recombinant insulin like growth factor 2 mRNA binding protein 2 (IGF2BP2) and decrease human phosphorylation phosphotylinosital 3-kinase and protein kinase B signal (p-PI3K/Akt) pathway. Conclusions  These results suggested that miR-150 restrained proliferation, migration, and invasion of HCC cells by regulating IGF2BP2, providing a new therapeutic target for HCC.

Key words: hepatocellular carcinoma, miR-150, IGF2BP2, migration and invasion