miRNAs are stable in colorectal cancer archival tissue blocks.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have prognostic and therapeutic value for colorectal cancers RCs). Although formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues are available for biomarker studies, the stability of miRNAs in these tissues stored for long periods (more than 20 years) is unknown. The present effort involved analysis of 345 FFPE CRC tissues, stored for 6 to 28 years (1982-2004), for the expression of six miRNAs (miR-20a, miR-21, miR-106a, miR-181b, miR-203, and miR-324-5p) using TaqMan(r) microRNA assays and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Evaluation, by linear regression analysis, of miRNA expression among archived CRC tissues found similar levels of all six miRNAs in tissues stored over this period (correlation coefficients, R2, ranged from less than 0.0001-0.009; and t-test p-values were greater than or equal to 0.05). Thus, miRNAs are stable in FFPE tissues stored for long periods of time, and such samples can be used for discovery of biomarkers.
Department of Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 515B1-Kracke, Building 619, 19th Street South, Birmingham, AL 35294-7331, USA.
Liselle
L
Bovell
Chandrakumar
C
Shanmugam
Venkat R
VR
Katkoori
Bin
B
Zhang
Emily
E
Vogtmann
William E
WE
Grizzle
Upender
U
Manne
D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000378:metabolism*; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
D035683:MicroRNAs