MiR-221 mediated gene expression in human PCa cells

MiR-221 overexpression leads to activation of apoptosis, growth arrest and reduced invasivness in PCa cells. Interaction of miR-221 with potential target genes was analyzed by a genome wide expression profiling.. Regulation of selected genes and proteins identified in the gene array analysis was confirmed by Real Time RT-PCR assay (IRF1, IRF2 SOCS3, STAT1), and Western Blotting. In total, 282 genes were upregulated and 64 downregulated based on a more than 2-fold difference to untransfected PC-3 cells. Regulated genes are involved in apoptosis, hemostasis, oxidative stress response, tumorigenesis and inflammation. We confirmed dysregulation of IRF-2 SOCS3, STAT1,IRF9. These results indicate that miR-221 overexpression might lead to activation of the JAK/STAT pathway and downregulation of miR-221 might contribute to tumorigenesis in PCa cells. pre-miR-221 transfected PC-3 cells vs unstimulated control cells - total samples analysed are 4.