PTEN acts as a tumor suppressor gene through its phosphatase protein product in a variety of cancers. However, it was still unknown whether miR-19a played its oncogenic roles through BI 2536 in vivo targeting PTEN in bladder cancer. So we detected the PTEN protein level in RT4 and Torin 1 in vitro TCCSUP cells transfected with miR-19a mimics and also in J82 and HT1376 cells transfected with miR-19a inhibitors. As expected,

the PTEN protein level was decreased evidently in presence of miR-19a mimics compared to scramble control in both of RT4 and TCCSUP cells. Conversely, PTEN was increased in presence of miR-19a inhibitors compared to scramble control in both of J82 and HT1376 cells (Figure 4A, B). These results indicated that miR-19a down-regulated PTEN protein in bladder cancer cells. Figure 4 miR-19a plays its oncogenic role in bladder cancer through targeting PTEN. (A) Western blot analysis of PTEN expression in selleck inhibitor RT4 and TCCSUP cells transfected

with scramble control or miR-19a mimics. (B) Western blot analysis of PTEN expression in J82 and HT1376 cells transfected with scramble control or miR-19a inhibitors. (C) Western blot of PTEN expression and CCK-8 analysis of cell growth of RT4 cells transfected with miR-19a mimic and PTEN expression plasmid. (D) Western blot of PTEN expression and CCK-8 analysis of cell growth of TCCSUP cells transfected with miR-19a mimic and PTEN expression plasmid. To further investigate whether miR-19a functions through targeting PTEN in bladder cancer cells, we employed a rescue experiment with miR-19a mimics and PTEN expression plasmid in RT4 and TCCSUP cells. A decrease in PTEN after treatment with miR-19a mimics confirmed the regulatory role of miR-19a on the expression of the target. The addition of PTEN expression plasmid led to further up-regulation of PTEN based on the previously described down-regulation in both of RT4 and TCCSUP cells (Figure 4C, D). Consistent with the restored expression of PTEN protein, promotion of cell growth by miR-19a mimics was rescued by the addition of PTEN expression plasmid (Figure 4C, D). These data confirmed the

regulatory role of miR-19a in CYTH4 bladder cancer cells was through targeting PTEN. miR-19a is also up-regulated in the plasma of patients with bladder cancer To explore the diagnostic potential of miR-19a in bladder cancer, we detected the expression of miR-19a in the plasma of 50 patients with bladder cancer and 50 healthy individuals. The data demonstrated that the average level of miR-19a in the bladder cancer patients was significantly higher than that in the healthy individuals which was consistent with its up-regulation in bladder cancer tissues (Figure 5A). The results suggested that miR-19a could be released from the bladder epithelium to the blood and increased miR-19a in the bladder cancer tissues caused its up-regulation in the plasma.