MicroRNA‑203a‑3p suppresses endothelial cell proliferation and invasion, and promotes apoptosis in hemangioma by inactivating the VEGF‑mediated PI3K/AKT pathway

Our previous study demonstrated that microRNA-203a-3p (miR-203a-3p) was involved in the regulation of long non-coding RNA MEG8-mediated the progression of hemangioma, which is a benign tumor characterized by endothelial hyperplasia in the blood vessels and primarily occurring in infants and females. Therefore, the present study aimed to further investigate the effects of miR-203a-3p on endothelial cell proliferation, invasion and apoptosis, as well as its underlying mechanism in hemangioma. Human hemangioma endothelial cells (HemECs) were first transfected with either miR-203a-3p mimics or a miR-203a-3p inhibitor. Subsequently, vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) was overexpressed in these cells. Cell proliferation (by Cell Counting Kit-8 assay), apoptosis (by TUNEL assay), invasion (by Transwell assay) and PI3K/AKT signaling (by western blot) were assessed following transfection of these cells. Notably, transfection with miR-203a-3p mimics caused a reduction in cell proliferation, invasion and in the phosphorylation levels of PI3K and AKT, and promoted cell apoptosis in HemECs. By contrast, transfection with the miR-203a-3p inhibitor exerted the opposite effects compared with those of the miR-203a-3p mimics. miR-203a-3p was revealed to directly suppress VEGFA expression in HemECs. VEGFA overexpression alone increased cell proliferation and invasion, but decreased apoptosis. Furthermore, VEGFA co-transfection reversed the effects mediated by miR-203a-3p mimics transfection in HemECs. Mechanistically, miR-203a-3p was demonstrated to inactivate the PI3K/AKT pathway, whereas VEGFA overexpression produced the opposite effect. VEGFA co-transfection also attenuated the miR-203a-3p mimics-induced inactivation of PI3K/AKT signaling in HemECs. In conclusion, these data suggested that miR-203a-3p may inhibit endothelial cell proliferation and invasion, and promote apoptosis by inactivating VEGFA and PI3K/AKT signaling in hemangioma. These findings also implicated miR-203 as a possible treatment option for this disease.