MicroRNA expression in prostate cancer cells stimulated with cancer associated fibroblasts

Tumor microenvironment is a strong determinant for the acquisition of metastatic potential of cancer cells. It has been demonstrated (Giannoni E et al., Cancer Res 2010) that cancer associated fibroblasts (CAF) elicit an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in prostate cancer (PCa) cells, leading to enhanced tumor cell aggressiveness. Here, we investigated the involvement of microRNAs (miRNA) in such malignant tumor-stroma interplay, to identify possible tools to counteract metastasis dissemination. To verify whether specific miRNAs are involved in CAF-induced EMT in PCa cells, PC-3 cells were subjected to a variety of stimuli, known to induce or not the acquisition of a mesenchymal phenotype (Giannoni E et al., Cancer Res 2010; Giannoni E et al., Antioxid Redox Signal 2011) , and profiled for miRNA expression on a microarray platform. miRNA expression profiles successfully distinguished cells that underwent EMT following the stimulation with activated fibroblasts (here referred to as “mesenchymal”) from cells that did not (“epithelial”).