miR-148b modulates the expression of multiple genes

To identify which miR-148b targets were involved in tumorigenesis, a microarray analysis was performed for miR-148b over-expressing cells versus controls and 129 (49 up and 80 down) modulated genes were revealed. The effects of miR-148b on cancer progression depend on the direct and indirect regulation of multiple target genes. To identify miR-148b modulated genes, MDA-MB-231 cells were transfected with miR-148b precursors or negative controls (pre-miR-148b or control) and used 48h later for microarray and western blot (WB) analyses. When a “Whole Human Genome Oligo Microarray” (Agilent) platform was employed, 129 differentially expressed genes (49 upregulated, 80 downmodulated) were found at 48h, considering a fold change (FC) cut of 1.5 and a false discovery rate (FDR) of 16% (Table S4). Crossing these results with the list of putative miR-148b targets (3642) obtained by the miRecords System, we observed that 33 of the modulated genes were also miR-148b predicted targets and interestingly, 26 out of these 33 genes were downmodulated.