Suppression of peripheral myelin protein 22 (PMP22) expression by miR29 inhibits the progression of lung cancer.

PMP22 is recently recognized as a key player in a variety of prevalent cancers. In this study, we sought to explore the correlation of peripheral myelin protein 22 (PMP22) expression with cell proliferation, invasion and apoptosis in lung cancer cell line. miR29 was transfected into Anip973 lung adenocarcinoma cell line to interfere the expression of PMP22 using Lipofectamine ® 2000 reagent. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot were performed to determine the expression level of PMP22 at mRNA and protein level. Then MTT, Matrigel transwell assay and flow cytometry were respectively used to explore the proliferation, invasion and apoptosis in Anip973 lung adenocarcinoma cell line in vitro. miR29 could significantly down-regulate the expression level of PMP22 in Anip973 cells not only at mRNA level but also at protein level. Moreover, the proliferation rate, invasive cell number and apoptosis rate of Anip973 cells in miR29 transfected group significantly decreased compared with blank group, while no significant difference existed between control group and blank group. Our study found that suppression of PMP22 expression could inhibit cell proliferation, invasion and apoptosis in lung cancer cells. All these findings suggest that PMP22 may be involved in progression of lung cancer and could be a new therapeutic target for this disease.