title: Expression of microRNA-218 and its clinicopathological and prognostic significance in human glioma cases.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  MicroRNAs are a class of noncoding RNAs which regulate multiple cellular processes during tumor development. The purpose of this report is to investigate the clinicopathological and prognostic significance of miR-218 in human gliomas.
  
  
  METHODS
  Quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) was conducted to detect the expression of miR-218 in primary normal human astrocytes, three glioma cell lines and 98 paired glioma and adjacent normal brain tissues.Associations of miR-218 with clinicopathological variables of glioma patients were statistically analyzed. Finally, a survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox's proportional hazards model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The expression level of miR-218 in primary normal human astrocytes was significantly higher than that in glioma cell lines (p<0.01). Also, the expression level of miR-218 in glioma tissues was significantly downregulated in comparison with that in the adjacent normal brain tissues (p<0.001). Statistical analyses demonstrated that low miR-218 expression was closely associated with advanced WHO grade (p=0.002) and low Karnofsky performance score (p=0.010) of glioma patients. Kaplan-Meier analysis with the log-rank test showed that patients with low-miR-218 expression had poorer disease-free survival and overall survival (p=0.0045 and 0.0124, respectively). Multivariate analysis revealed that miR-218 expression was independently associated with the disease-free survival (p=0.009) and overall survival (p=0.004) of glioma patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results indicate that miR-218 is downregulated in gliomas and that its status might be a potential valuable biomarker for glioma patients.
authors.affiliation: College of Command Information System, PLA University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China E-mail : huguyu_nj@163.com.
authors.forename: Mao-Wei
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Ling-Ling
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Gu-Yu
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D001253:Astrocytes / Q000166:cytology; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics*; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D015536:Down-Regulation; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D005910:Glioma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C547471:MIRN218 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs