Objective To investigate the expression of microRNA-135 a(miR-135 a) in the glioma and its effects on proliferation and apoptosis of glioma cells and its related molecular mechanism. Methods The quantitative real-time fluorescent PCR(qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of miR-135 a in 60 cases of glioma tissues and corresponding adjacent tissues of human glioma cells(U87, U251, and A172) and human astrocytes HA1800. After miR-135 a mimics were transfected into U87 cells, the proliferation activity and apoptotic rate of U87 cells were observed by CCK-8 assay and flow cytometry, and the expression of HOXA10 protein in U87 cells was observed by Western blotting. Results The expression of miR-135 a in the glioma tissues was lower than that in the adjacent tissues(P<0.01); the expression of miR-135 a in the glioma cells U87, U251 and A172 was lower than that in the human astrocytes HA1800(P<0.01); the expression of miR-135 a decreased gradually with the increase of pathological grade of glioma(P<0.01). Up-regulation of the expression of miR-135 a in U87 cells decreased the proliferation activity, increased the apoptotic rate, and decreased the expression of HOXA10 protein(all P<0.01).Conclusion The expression of miR-135 a is low in glioma, and miR-135 a plays an anti-cancer role in glioma by down-regulating HOXA10 gene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...