The expression levels of miRNA-29c are deregulated in human CRC tumors, and overexpression of miRNA-29c in Caco2 cells affects cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, and cell migration.

<p>(A) miRNA-29c expression levels in 56 non-early and 51 early relapse CRC tumor samples. The expression level is significantly decreased in the early-relapse tumors (<i>P = </i>0.021). (B) WST-1 assay showing that miRNA-29c suppresses tumor cell proliferation (<i>P = </i>0.006). OmiR-29c indicates the Caco2 cell clone stably overexpressing miRNA-29c, and NC indicates the negative control stable clone. (C) Overexpression of miRNA-29c causes a significant accumulation of cells in the G2 phase (<i>P = </i>0.02). Black: G1/G0 phase; light gray: S phase; and dark gray: G2 phase. (D) Transwell assay showing that overexpression of miRNA-29c suppresses tumor-cell migration (<i>P</i><0.0001). (E) Overexpression of miRNA-29c does not affect tumor-cell invasion (<i>P = </i>0.349). (F) Overexpression of miRNA-29c decreases cell migration, as indicated by a gap of increased width in O miRNA-29c compared to NC at 24 and 48 h. The photographs showing the inhibition of tumor cell migration were obtained from the wounding healing assay.