MicroRNA-186 targets SKP2 to induce p27Kip1-mediated pituitary tumor cell cycle deregulation and modulate cell proliferation

Pituitary tumors are usually benign but can occasionally exhibit hormonal and proliferative behaviors. Dysregulation of the G1/S restriction point largely contributes to the over-proliferation of pituitary tumor cells. F-box protein S-phase kinase-interacting protein-2 (SKP2) reportedly targets and inhibits the expression of p27Kip1, a well-known negative regulator of G1 cell cycle progression. In this study, SKP2 expression was found to be upregulated while p27Kip1 expression was determined to be downregulated in rat and human pituitary tumor cells. Furthermore, SKP2 knockdown induced upregulation of p27Kip1 and cell growth inhibition in rat and human pituitary tumor cells, while SKP2overexpression elicited opposite effects on p27Kip1 expression and cell growth. The expression of microRNA-186 (miR-186) was reported to be reduced in pituitary tumors. Online tools predicted SKP2 to be a direct downstream target of miR-186, which was further confirmed by luciferase reporter gene assays. Moreover, miR-186 could modulate the cell proliferation and p27Kip1-mediated cell cycle alternation of rat and human pituitary tumor cells through SKP2. As further confirmation of these findings, miR-186 and p27Kip1 expression were downregulated, while SKP2 expression was upregulated in human pituitary tumor tissue samples; thus, SKP2 expression negatively correlated with miR-186 and p27Kip1 expression. In contrast, miR-186 expression positively associated with p27Kip1 expression. Taken together, we discovered a novel mechanism by which miR-186/SKP2 axis modulates pituitary tumor cell proliferation through p27Kip1-mediated cell cycle alternation.