miR-877-3p inhibits tumor growth and angiogenesis of osteosarcoma through fibroblast growth factor 2 signaling

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common high-grade malignant bone tumor in teenagers. MicroRNAs can function as posttranscriptional regulators of gene expression, playing critical roles in cancer dev-877-3p in OS. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR was carried out for detecting miR-877-3p expression in OS. The effects of miR-877-3p on proliferation was analyzed via MTT, colony formation, and flow cytometry assays. Angiogenesis of endothelial cells were investigated by wound healing and tube formation assay. Gene profiling based on PCR array and luciferase reporter assay were conducted to determine target genes of miR-877-3p. In-vivo study was used to determine the effects of miR-877-3p on the tumor growth. The expression of miR-877-3p was markedly downregulated in OS tissues and cell lines. Low expression of miR-877-3p predicts poor prognosis of OS patients. miR-877-3p overexpression was found to inhibit the proliferation of OS cell lines. The angiogenesis assays showed that miR-877-3p attenuated the angiogenesis. Further mechanism studies showed that miR-877-3p can reduce (Fibroblast Growth Factor 2) FGF2 expression in OS cells by binding to the 3’UTR end of FGF2. Moreover, increased expression of miR-877-3p was responsible for the inhibition of tumor growth and angiogenesis. Taken together, our findings indicated that miR-877-3p might exhibit tumor suppressive role by targeting FGF2 signaling, which may serve as potential target for OS.