Abstract: Objective To explore the effect of miR-542-5p on proliferation, migration and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by targeting ENSA. Methods The expression of miR-542-5p in HCC tissues and para-carcinoma tissues was analyzed by GSE36915 data matrix. miR-542- 5p overexpression were performed in the HCC cell lines HepG2 and Hep3B and verified by RTPCR. The proliferation, migration and invasion of cells were detected by CCK-8, wound healing and Transwell assays. miR-542-5p overexpressed Hep3B cells were used to establish the transplanted tumor model in nude mice. The volume and weight of transplanted tumors were measured. The miR- 542-5p expression level in transplanted tumors was detected by RT-PCR. The differential expression genes of GSE101728 and GSE7642 were analyzed by GEO2R, and the target genes of miR-542-5pwere predicted by miRWalk, ENSA gene was then screened out. The expression level of ENSA inHCC tissues and para-carcinoma tissues was analyzed by TCGA HCC data. The expression level of ENSA in miR-542-5p overexpressed HepG2 and Hep3B cells was detected by RT-PCR. The cell proliferation, migration and invasion were detected in miR-542-5p overexpressed HepG2 and Hep3Bcells after transfected with ENSA overexpression plasmid. Results The expression level of miR-542-5p in the HCC tissues was significantly lower than that in the para-carcinoma tissues (P < 0. 01).The proliferation rate, migration rate and relative number of invasion cells in the miR-542-5p overexpressed cells were significantly lower than those in miR-NC overexpressed cells (P < 0. 01). The results ofin vivoexperiments showed that the volume and weight of tumors in the miR-542-5p overexpression group were significantly lower than those in the miR-NC overexpression group (P< 0. 01).The expression level of ENSA in the HCC tissues was significantly higher than that in the para-carcinoma tissues (P< 0. 01), and ENSA could promote HCC progression. The protein expression levelof ENSA in the miR-542-5p overexpressed cells were significantly lower than that in the miR-NCoverexpressed cells (P< 0. 01). The proliferation rate, migration rate and relative number of invasion cells in cells with miR-542-5p + ENSA overexpression were significantly higher than those incells with miR-542-5p overexpression (P< 0. 01). Conclusion miR-542-5p can inhibit the proliferation, migration and invasion of HCC cells by inhibiting ENSA.

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