MiR-21 up-regulation mediates glioblastoma cancer stem cells apoptosis and proliferation by targeting FASLG

Chao Shang, Yan Guo, Yang Hong, Yun-hui Liu, Yi-xue Xue

To investigate whether miR-21 can affect the apoptosis and proliferation of glioblastoma cancer stem cells (GSCs) from down-regulating FASLG. The expression of miRNA-21 was detected by quantitative real-time PCR in normal brain tissue and glioblastoma samples, and the changes of miRNA-21 expression between GSCs and non-GSCs were also detected. The apoptosis and proliferation ability of miR-21 in GSCs were analyzed by MTT and flow cytometry assay after anti-miR-21 transfection. For the regulation mechanism analysis of miR-21, TargetScan, PicTar and microRNA were selected to predict some potential target genes of miR-21. The predicted gene was identified to be the direct and specific target gene of miR-21 by luciferase activities assay and western blot. RNA interference technology was used to confirm the apoptosis and proliferation effects of miR-21 were directly induced by FASLG. The expression of miR-21 increased significantly in glioblastoma contrast to normal brain tissue, and miR-21 up-regulated in GSCs remarkably. The proliferation of GSCs cell could be inhibited with high-expression of miR-21 and this effect could be restored by miR-21 knocked down. Mechanism analysis revealed that FASLG was a specific and direct target gene of miR-21. The advanced effects of anti-miR-21 on GSCs apoptosis and proliferation were mediated by expression of silenced FASLG. In summary, aberrantly expressed miR-21 regulates GSCs apoptosis and proliferation partly through directly down-regulating FASLG protein expression in GSCs and this might offer a new potential therapeutic stratagem for glioblastoma.