Analysis of expressive proteome in human hepatocarcinoma cell HepG2 transfected with miR-26a mimics

AIM: To determine whether microRNA-26a(miR-26a) is involved in development of liver cancer by analysis of proteomic expression profile of human hepatocarcinoma cell HepG2 transfected with miR-26a mimics.METHODS: HepG2 cells were cultured by a routine method and transfected with miR-26a mimics for 48 h for cell cycle analysis. The expressive proteome profiles of HepG2 cells with or without miR-26a mimics treatment were established by the methods of two-dimensional electrophoresis separation following lysis of the cells and extraction of the proteins. The proteomic expression profiles were analyzed by comparative proteomics technique to discover the important protein spots with differential expression. The identification of the proteins was conducted by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry(MALDI-TOF-MS). RESULTS: miR-26a brought down the proliferation of HepG2 cells. Total 11 protein spots with alteration of expressive amounts more than 2 times were successfully identified in the proteomic expression profile of HepG2 cells treated with miR-26a mimics, including annexin A1, peroxiredoxin 4, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, apolipoprotein A1, cytochrome C oxidase subunit 5A, cyclin E2, ribose-phosphate pyrophosphokinase 3, cyclin-dependent kinase 1 and phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein 1. Among these, the expression of 3 protein spots was up-regulated and 8 of them was down-regulated.CONCLUSION: miR-26a contributes to the anti-cancer effect by expressive regulation of the proteins mentioned above, or directly or indirectly controls the proliferation, differentiation and death of hepatocarcinoma cells.