Several studies on papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) have been performed. However, the effects of endothelin 3 (EDN3) and microRNA (miR)‑27a‑3p on PTC cells has yet to be investigated, to the best of the authors' knowledge. The present study aimed to explore the biological functions of EDN3 and miR‑27a‑3p in PTC cells. Bioinformatics analysis was conducted to identify possible key genes and miRs involved in PTC progression. Western blot analysis and reverse transcription‑quantitative (RT‑q) PCR were employed to confirm the key genes or miRs expressed in PTC cells. Cytological methods were used to detect cell viability, proliferation, apoptosis and migration and luciferase reporter assay was performed to confirm the relationship between END3 and miR‑27a‑3p. After analyzing the results of gene microarray analyses and RT‑qPCR, EDN3 with low expression was identified as the key gene associated with PTC progression. It was also found that EDN3 overexpression in PTC cells impaired cell viability, proliferation and migration but promoted cell apoptosis. In addition, the findings revealed that miR‑27a‑3p could relieve the inhibitory influence of EDN3 on PTC cells by binding to EDN3 mRNA 3' untranslated region (UTR), thereby suppressing EDN3 expression. Overall, the results of the present study demonstrated that by binding to EDN3 mRNA 3'UTR, miR‑27a‑3p could attenuate the inhibitory function of EDN3 in the tumorigenesis of PTC cells.
Keywords: miR‑27a‑3; endothelin; papillary thyroid cancer.