TY - JOUR AB - MicroRNA (miR)‑224‑5p has been reported to be associated with multiple types of cancer. However, its biological role and underlying mechanism in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has yet to be fully elucidated. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether miR‑224‑5p mRNA expression level was increased in hepatocellular carcinoma and whether it was associated with poor prognosis. Decreased mRNA expression level of miR‑224‑5p was shown to suppress liver cancer cell migration, invasion and epithelial‑mesenchymal transition (EMT). Mechanistically, E2F1 was found to regulate miR‑224‑5p expression by binding to its promoter region. Melanoregulin (MREG) was identified as the direct target of miR‑224‑5p by searching the TargetScan, miRDB and StarBase databases. Overexpression of MREG could attenuate liver cancer cell migration, invasion and EMT. Rescue experiments further confirmed that MREG was associated with the regulation of miR‑224‑5p in liver cancer. In addition, the E2F1/miR‑224‑5p axis was shown to promote liver cancer cell migration, invasion and EMT by regulating MREG expression. These results suggested that E2F1‑induced upregulation of miR‑224‑5p may serve an important role in MREG‑induced liver cancer cell migration, invasion and EMT, and highlights the regulatory function of miR‑224‑5p in liver cancer. Therefore, the E2F1/miR‑224‑5p/MREG axis may provide a theoretical basis for the clinical treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. AD - Department of Radiotherapy, Shanxi Yuncheng Central Hospital, Yuncheng, Shanxi 044000, P.R. China Department of Oncology, Shanghai Pudong New Area Gongli Hospital, Shanghai 200135, P.R. China Department of Cardiology, Shanxi Yuncheng Central Hospital, Yuncheng, Shanxi 044000, P.R. China AU - Li,An AU - Wu,Ning AU - Sun,Jingyu DA - 2022/03/01 DO - 10.3892/ol.2022.13202 IS - 3 JO - Oncol Lett KW - microRNA‑224‑5p melanoregulin E2F1 hepatocellular carcinoma cell migration cell invasion epithelial‑to‑mesenchymal transition PY - 2022 SN - 1792-1074 1792-1082 SP - 82 ST - E2F1‑induced microRNA‑224‑5p expression is associated with hepatocellular carcinoma cell migration, invasion and epithelial‑mesenchymal transition via MREG T2 - Oncology Letters TI - E2F1‑induced microRNA‑224‑5p expression is associated with hepatocellular carcinoma cell migration, invasion and epithelial‑mesenchymal transition via MREG UR - https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2022.13202 VL - 23 ER -