title: Downregulation of microRNA-132 indicates progression in hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: Although miR-132 has been studied in various human tumors, few studies have investigated the role of miR-132 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The present study aimed to evaluate the associations between miR-132 and clinicopathological parameters, including recurrence, in patients with HCC. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis was used to detect the expression levels of miR-132 in 95 cases of HCC and their corresponding non-cancerous liver tissues. Th e associations between miR-132 expression levels and clinicopathological characteristics, including recurrence, were investigated in patients with HCC. miR-132 expression levels were significantly reduced in HCC tissues, as compared with adjacent non-cancerous tissues (1.9245±0.7564 vs. 2.7326±1.1475; P<0.001). The area under curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) used to distinguish cancerous and non-cancerous tissues was 0.711 for miR-132 expression (95% confidence interval, 0.637-0.785; P<0.001) and the optimal cut-off value was 2.25. Expression levels of miR-132 were significantly reduced in the distant metastasis (P=0.031), advanced clinical TNM stage (P=0.022), hepatitis B virus-positive (P<0.001), NM23-expressed (P=0.034), high Ki-67 labeling index (LI; P=0.005) and tumor infiltration or no capsule groups (P=0.026). Spearman correlation analysis demonstrated that miR-132 was significantly correlated with hepatitis B virus infection (r=-0.351; P<0.001), NM23 (r=-0.220; P=0.032), Ki-67 LI (r=-0.264; P=0.010) and tumor capsule (r=-0.207; P=0.044). Kaplan-Meier analysis with the log-rank test indicated an approximate difference of 8 months, although miR-132 may exhibit inferior values for the prediction of recurrence in HCC patients (50.95 vs. 58.68 months; P=0.512). Therefore, the findings of the present study indicated that miR-132 is downregulated in HCC and may serve as a tumor suppressor in its progression.
authors.affiliation: Research Department, Affiliated Cancer Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Breast Surgery, Affiliated Cancer Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Research Department, Affiliated Cancer Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Ruishan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Rongquan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Tingqing
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yihuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Research Department, Affiliated Cancer Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Minhua
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rong
keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma; microRNA-132; progression; reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction