MiR-484 promotes the malignant progression of glioma by inhibiting CDKN2A expression

Introduction: Cyclin Dependent Kinase Inhibitor 2A (CDKN2A) is involved in glioma progression, but the specific molecular mechanism of CDKN2A in glioma cell migration and invasion needs to be further explored. Material and methods: Data related to CDKN2A expression and glioma overall survival were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Then, CDKN2A expression in glioma tissues/cells or paracancer tissues/astrocytes was measured by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) or Western blot. Afterwards, Wound healing, Transwell and tube formation assay were performed to identify the invasion, migration and angiogenesis of glioma cells, respectively. TargetScan database predicted the targeted binding between miR-484 and CDKN2A, which was verified by dual luciferase reporter gene assay. Western blot and qRT-PCR were performed to detect the expression of VEGF, E-cadherin, N-cadherin and Vimentin in glioma cells. Results: CDKN2A was low-expressed in glioma tissue/cells as compared to paracancer tissue/astrocytes, and was strongly associated to the poor prognosis of glioma. Further studies found that down-regulation of CDKN2A could promote migration, invasion and angiogenesis of glioma cells. Besides, miR-484 was high-expressed in glioma cells compared to astrocytes. Up-regulation of miR-484 could enhance migration, invasion and angiogenesis of glioma cells. In addition, up-regulated miR-484 suppressed the expression of E-cadherin, and promoted the expression of N-cadherin, Vimentin and VEGF. However, there was negative regulation of miR-484 and CDKN2A, and CDKN2A could partially offset the effect of miR-484. Conclusions: MiR-484 promoted cell migration, invasion and angiogenesis by inhibiting CDKN2A expression.