Abstract: Objective To detect miR-143 expression in human nasopharyngeal carcinnoma (NPC) cell lines and explore the role
of miR-143 in regulating the adhesion ability of NPC cells. Methods Fluorescence quantitative RT-PCR was used to detect
miR-143 expression levels in 5 NPC cell lines (CEN1, CNE2, HONE1, 5-8F, and 6-10B) and an immortalized human
nasopharyngeal epithelial cell line (NP69). The retrovirus plasmid pMSCV-puro-miR-143 was constructed and the packaged
retroviruses pMSCV-puro and pMSCV-puro-miR-143 were infected in 5-8F cells to establish a cell line with stable miR-143
overexpression, whose adhesion ability was tested with adhesion assay. Results The expression of miR-143 was downregulated
in the NPC cell lines, and the highly metastatic NPC cell line 5-8F had a expression of only 3.0% of the control level,
as compared with the level of 63.59% in the tumorigenic but nonmetastatic NPC cell line 6-10B. The transfected 5-8F cells
showed a 1080-fold increase of miR-143 expression (P<0.05) with a significantly lowered adhesion ability. Conclusion miR-143
plays a role in regulating the invasiveness and metastasis of NPC, and overexpression of miR-143 causes a significant
reduction of the adhesion ability of the highly metastatic NPC cell line 5-8F.