Identification of microRNA expression patterns in cutaneous and uveal melanoma cell lines

Aims and background: microRNA (miRNA)-mediated epigenetic regulation of tumour suppressor genes and oncogenes has been shown to play a central role in melanomagenesis. Here, we focused on identification of miRNA signature in the cutaneous melanoma cell line G361 and uveal melanoma cell line OCM-1. Methods and study design: We carried out genome-wide miRNA expression profiling by human miRNA microarray platform (Agilent Sanger miRBase-release 10.1) in both the cell lines. Results: Our screening revealed a significant alteration of miRNA expression profiles in melanoma cell lines comparing with Normal Human Epidermal Melanocytes (NHEM). We defined 208 miRNAs differentially expressed in OCM-1 and 112 in G361. By comparison analysis between resulting miRNA expression profiles, we identified 96 miRNAs commonly modified in the two cellular models. Among common miRNAs, sixty-five were down-regulated, 28 up-regulated, and 3 exhibited a different expression trend. Conclusions: Although preliminary, our analysis identify new melanoma-associated miRNAs providing novel miRNA candidates for the development of anticancer target therapy.