MiR-223 Suppresses Proliferation and Promotes Apoptosis of Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Cells Through Lmo2 and MAPK Signaling Pathway.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of micro ribonucleic acid (miR)-223 on the proliferation and apoptosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) cells, and its associations with the LIM domain only 2 (Lmo2) gene and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. METHODS The DLBCL samples were obtained to analyze the expression levels of miR-223 and Lmo2, with para-carcinoma normal tissues as controls. The DLBCL OCI-LY8 cell lines were cultured in suspension in vitro, and transfected with miR-223 mimics or miR-negative control (NC) and Lmo2-siRNA or Lmo2-NC, respectively, with cells normally cultured as controls. Moreover, the target gene Lmo2 of miR-223 was predicted online, and the Lmo2 luciferase reporter vectors containing miR-223 target site were constructed. RESULTS In 8 out of 9 cases of DLBCL tissues, the expression of miR-223 was significantly lower (p<0.01), while the mRNA expression of Lmo2 was significantly higher than those in para-carcinoma normal tissues (p<0.01). After overexpression of miR-223 or inhibition on Lmo2, the proliferation ability of OCI-LY8 cells was obviously weakened (p<0.01), the apoptosis rate was obviously raised (p<0.01), and the protein expressions of phosphorylated (p)-p38 and p-c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) were obviously up-regulated (p<0.01). Moreover, the results of luciferase reporter assay revealed that the expression of Lmo2 was remarkably inhibited by miR-223 mimics (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS MiR-223 may suppress the proliferation and promote the apoptosis of DLBCL c.