miR-28-5p inhibits cholangiocarcinoma progression and predicts good prognosis of patients.

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is one of the most common hepatic and biliary malignancies. The overall five-year survival rate for cholangiocarcinoma is less than 15%. miR-28-5p has been reported to participate the development of various human cancer types. But whether miR-28-5p is associated with the clinical course of CCA patients has not been clarified. Herein, we observed that miR-28-5p was reduced in CCA tissues and predicts the poor prognosis of CCA patients. Treatment with the demethylating agent 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-AZA) restored miR-28-5p expression in CCA cell lines. Furthermore, up-regulated miR-28-5p inhibited CCA cells growth and metastasis. Mechanistically, miR-28-5p suppressed CCA cells growth and metastasis via directly targeting CD44 molecular. Specific CD44 special siRNA abrogated the discrepancy of the proliferation and metastasis capacity between miR-28-5p-overexpression CCA cells and their control cells, which further confirmed that CD44 was required in miR-28-5p-inhibited CCA cell growth and metastasis.