MicroRNA-203 inhibits malignant melanoma cell migration by targeting versican

MicroRNA (miR)-203 has been demonstrated to function as a suppressor in tumorigenesis. Recently, miR-203 was reported to play a role in malignant melanoma (MM); however, the detailed function of miR-203 in MM remains unclear. In the present study, the expression of miR-203 was shown to be significantly downregulated in MM tissues when compared with normal adjacent tissues. Based on a bioinformatic prediction, versican was further identified as a novel target of miR-203, and the expression of versican was markedly increased in MM tissues. Inhibition of miR-203 increased the protein expression of versican, while upregulation of miR-203 inhibited the protein expression of versican in MM A375 cells. In addition, the upregulation of versican significantly promoted A375 cell migration; however, upregulation of miR-203 suppressed A375 cell migration. The present study further investigated whether miR-203 was involved in versican-mediated A375 cell migration, and the results indicated that upregulation of miR-203 significantly inhibited A375 cell migration, which was impaired by overexpression of versican. These observations indicated that versican functions as a downstream effector in miR-203-mediated MM cell migration. Therefore, the results demonstrated that miR-203 exhibited an inhibitory effect on MM cell migration via directly targeting versican, thus, may become an effective inhibitor for MM metastasis.