Suppression of MicroRNA-144 Promotes CXCR4 and CXCL12 Expression and Downregulates Apoptosis in Ovarian Cancer Cells

MicroRNAs are important regulators in the growth and metastasis of ovarian cancers. Many assays were established to identify the role of miR-144-3p in ovarian cancer cells and its interaction with COX-2 and chemokines (CXCR4 and CXCL12). The ovarian cancer cells (OVCAR-3 and SKOV-3) were transfected with Anti-miR-144 to downregulate the miR-144-3p and cultured for 36 h. We herein examined the cell viability, colony formation, cell migration, COX-2 reporter activity, the protein expressions of CXCR4, CXCL12, COX-2, VEGF, Caspase-3, BAX and Bcl-2. We have observed that the suppression of miR-144-3p significantly increased the cell proliferation and migration and decreased the apoptosis. Moreover, the downregulation of miR-144-3p markedly increased the COX-2, CXCR4, CXCL12 and VEGF expression in OVCAR-3 and SKOV-3 ovarian cancer cells. In conclusion, miR-144-3p may play important roles in the regulation of chemokine receptor CXCR4 and its ligand CXCL12 in the progressive ovarian tumors expressing COX2. These data suggests that miR-144 has the novel therapeutic targets for the cancer therapy and cancer prevention.