MicroRNA-10a enhances the metastatic potential of cervical cancer cells by targeting phosphatase and tensin homologue

Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Previously, the upregulation of microRNA (miR)-10a has been identified in human cervical cancer. The present study firstly demonstrated that miR-10a was markedly upregulated in primary tumor tissues in patients with positive lymph node metastasis (LN+) compared with negative (LN-) by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. miR-10a mimics markedly enhanced cervical cancer cell, migration and invasion abilities, and accordingly the miR-10a inhibitor suppressed those functions. Furthermore, these data suggested that the phosphatase and tensin homologue (PTEN) was inhibited by miR-10a through an miR-10a binding site within the 3'-untranslated region of PTEN at the posttranscriptional level, and that miR-10a mimics promoted nuclear translocation of beta-catenin. Therefore, it was concluded that the overexpression of miR-10a contributes to metastasis in cervical cancer by targeting PTEN. miR-10a may therefore be used clinically as a molecular marker for patients with cervical cancer lymph node metastasis.