MicroRNA-21 promotes cell proliferation, migration, and resistance to apoptosis through PTEN/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in esophageal cancer

Our study aimed to explore associations between microRNA-21 (miR-21) and PTEN/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway and, further, to elucidate the regulation of miR-21 on biological behaviors in human esophageal cancer cells. The expressions of miR-21, PTEN, PI3K, and AKT were detected in 89 esophageal cancer samples and 58 adjacent normal tissues respectively. The human esophageal cancer cells (TE11) were grouped as following: blank (TE11 cells without...