Acta Biochimica et Biophysica Sinica Advance Access originally published online on June 5, 2009
Acta Biochimica et Biophysica Sinica 2009 41(7):618-623; doi:10.1093/abbs/gmp049
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BMPRII is a direct target of miR-21
1 State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
2 St. Luke's Hospital, 786 Yuyuan Road, Shanghai 200050, China
* Correspondence address. Tel: +86-21-54921222; Fax: +86-21-54921011; E-mail: yxjin{at}sibs.ac.cn
| Abstract |
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MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a type of small non-coding RNAs that regulate cognate mRNA expressions at the post-transcriptional stage. Although several miRNAs are known to be involved in various biological processes, including developmental timing, patterning, embryogenesis, differentiation and organogenesis, growth control, and apoptosis, many target genes and the functions of most miRNAs are still unclear. Since there is only a partial complementarity between miRNAs and their targets in animal cells, it is difficult to identify the specific target genes for a given miRNA and elucidate its function. In this study, we confirmed that bone morphogenetic protein receptor II (BMPRII) is a direct target of miR-21, and also showed that the protein level of BMPRII correlates inversely with the amount of miR-21 in PC3 and Lncap cells. These findings suggest that miR-21 may have a potential role in regulating the malignancy and metastatic abilities of prostate cancer cells and in self-renewal of stem cells by regulating the expression of BMPRII.
Keywords microRNA; miR-21; BMPRII; target; prostate cancer
Received: March 20, 2009; Accepted: April 7, 2009
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