miR-181 as a putative biomarker for lymph-node metastasis of oral squamous cell carcinoma.
BACKGROUND
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is an important malignant disease around the world. Aberrant expression of MicroRNAs (miRNAs) has been implicated in carcinogenesis of various cancers. In previous studies, up-regulation of miR-181 was observed when OSCC progressed from leukoplakia, dysplasia to invasive carcinoma. However, the function of miR-181 in oral tumorigenesis remains unclear.


METHODS
The expression levels of miR-181 in the tissue and plasma of OSCC patients were measured by quantitative RT-PCR. The correlation between miR-181 level and multiple clinical variables were then checked by Mann-Whitney test and Wilcoxon matched pairs test. To study the functional meaning of up-regulated miR-181, migration assay and invasion assay by transwells and colony forming assay were applied to analyze the tumorigenic phenotypes of OSCC cells with ectopical expression of miR-181.


RESULTS
Among different clinical variables, over-expression of miR-181 was correlated with lymph-node metastasis, vascular invasion, and a poor survival. Functional assays revealed ectopically over-expressed miR-181 would enhance cell migration and invasion, but not the ability of anchorage-independent growth of OSCC cells. In addition, the up-regulation of miR-181 could be detected both in tumor tissues and plasma.


CONCLUSIONS
miR-181 may enhance lymph-node metastasis through regulating migration, which could potentially be exploited as a putative biomarker for patients with OSCC.
Department of Dentistry, School of Dentistry, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Cheng-Chieh
CC
Yang
Pei-Shih
PS
Hung
Pei-Wen
PW
Wang
Chung-Ji
CJ
Liu
Ting-Hui
TH
Chu
Hui-Wen
HW
Cheng
Shu-Chun
SC
Lin
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D016014:Linear Models; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000032:analysis / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000097:blood; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000378:metabolism*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D014410:Tumor Stem Cell Assay; D015854:Up-Regulation
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C540193:MIrn181 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs