Compared with OSCC patients with lower expression of microRNA-378, patients with higher expression of microRNA-378 had higher incidences of lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis, as well as shorter overall survival.
Finally, the number of metastasis nodules in the lung tissues of nude mice was reduced by overexpression of miR-378, whereas the metastasis nodule number was raised by miR-378 knockdown.
We also demonstrated that cells treated with miR-378 inhibitors or miR-1827 mimics had reduced number of metastases and ectopic vessels in the zebrafish embryo model.
Re‑expression of miR‑378 significantly promoted tumor migration and invasion in vitro, and metastasis in vivo, while downregulation of miR‑378 suppressed the effect in vitro.
Overexpression of miR-378 repressed glioma cell epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and metastasis as well as the tumor growth rate and tumor size of glioma mice.
Consequently, tumors grow significantly faster and they display enhanced ability to metastasize to lungs and to vascularize due to elevated VEGF, MMP9 and miR-378 expression.