miRNAs in colorectal cancer metastasis

Metastasis is a complex process involving multiple steps. We were interested in the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the process of liver colonization by colorectal cancer cells. We hypothesized that the comparison between non-metastatic versus metastatic isogenic cell line should thus offer valuable insight to the molecular mechanisms involved in developing metastatic behavior. KM12C/KM12SM and SW480/SW620 are probably the best available models of isogenic cell lines differing in metastatic properties for colorectal cancer. Our first goal was to identify miRNAs that contribute to the metastatic traits of the isogenic colorectal cancer cell lines, KM12C/KM12SM and SW480/SW620. Total RNA was extracted from cells using the mirVana kit (Ambion). Total RNA (1 µg) from KM12C and SW480 (poorly metastatic) and KM12SM and SW620 (highly metastatic) cells was used to analyze the global miRNA expression profiling with TaqMan Megaplex human array A (v2.0) and B (v3.0) (Applied Biosystems). We compared miRNA expression profiles between colorectal cancer cell lines with different metastatic properties and then identified target proteins of the dysregulated miRNAs