Prognostic significance of Dicer expression in hepatocellular carcinoma.
Dicer is a RNaseIII endonuclease of the microRNA processing pathway, which is implicated in carcinogenesis of various types of human cancer. The present study assessed the expression level of Dicer in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissue to evaluate its association with HCC tumorigenesis. A low expression of Dicer was significantly associated with a shorter postoperative survival time of patients with HCC, which was assessed using the log-rank test with Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Multivariate analysis identified that Dicer expression was an independent predictor for HCC outcome (relative risk, 0.660; 95% confidence interval, 0.506-0.861; P=0.002). A functional assay demonstrated that Dicer overexpression inhibited the proliferation and promoted the apoptosis of HCC cells. In addition, a Transwell assay revealed that Dicer markedly inhibited the migration and invasion of HCC cells. The present findings indicate that Dicer expression modified the outcomes of HCC patients by inhibiting proliferation, promoting apoptosis and inhibiting metastasis of HCC cells.
Hebei Key Lab of Animal Science, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050017, P.R. China.
L I
LI
Zhang
Department of Gynecology Ultrasound, The Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050011, P.R. China.
Cuiju
C
Wang
Hebei Key Lab of Animal Science, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050017, P.R. China.
Shufeng
S
Liu
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, The Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050011, P.R. China.
Yufei
Y
Zhao
Hebei Key Lab of Animal Science, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050017, P.R. China.
Chao
C
Liu
Hebei Key Lab of Animal Science, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050017, P.R. China; Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, The Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050011, P.R. China.
Zhanjun
Z
Guo
Dicer; apoptosis; hepatocellular carcinoma; metastasis; microRNA; proliferation