miR-200c affects the mRNA expression of E-cadherin by regulating the mRNA level of TCF8 during post-natal epididymal development in juvenile rats.

The unique temporal expression pattern of miR-200c in epididymis during post-natal development in juvenile rats was revealed by our home-made miRNA microarray in this paper. It was found that miR-200c expressed in the lowest level at Day 7 and then increased to the highest at Day 36 followed by a dramatic decrease. The pattern was exactly inverse to that of mRNA expression of transcription factor 8 (TCF8) revealed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), providing an extra evidence that TCF8 is one degradation target of miR-200c even in epididymis. Moreover, the qRT-PCR study on expression of E-cadherin and interleukin-2 indicated that miR-200c does exert an obvious effect on the mRNA expression of E-cadherin by directly regulating the mRNA level of TCF8, although the effect on interleukin-2 is not obvious as on E-cadherin, which implicates that interleukin-2 may be also regulated by other factors besides TCF8 in rat epididymis.