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Decreased expression of miR-126 correlates with metastatic recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma

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Abstract

The liver transplant (LT) situation represents an attractive model for studying hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) metastasis. Based on microarray data, we previously found that miR-126 expression was lower in tumor tissues of patients with post-LT HCC recurrence compared with non-recurrence. In this study, we examined the expression of miR-126 in HCC samples from 68 patients who had undergone LT using quantitative real-time PCR and analyzed its correlation with clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients. Furthermore, we performed experimental analyses to explore the involvement of miR-126 in HCC metastasis. We found that miR-126 levels were lower in tumor tissues of patients with post-LT HCC recurrence in comparison to patients with no-recurrence (p = 0.009). Lower expression of miR-126 in HCC was associated significantly with tumor recurrence (p = 0.011) and poor survival (p = 0.009) of patients. Functional studies indicated that ectopic expression of miR-126 significantly inhibits HCC cells migration, invasion, proliferation and colony formation in vitro, and suppresses experimental lung colonization in vivo. Our study revealed that down-regulation of miR-126 plays an important role in HCC metastasis, and suggest a potential application of miR-126 in prognosis prediction and HCC treatment.

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Abbreviations

HCC:

Hepatocellular carcinoma

LT:

Liver transplant

miR(s):

MicroRNA(s)

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction

FFPE:

Formalin-fixed paraffin embedded

MET:

Mesenchymal epithelial transition

OS:

Overall survival

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by National Key Technology R&D Program (2008BAI60B03).

Conflict of interest

The authors disclosed no commercial or financial interest in the subject of study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Surgery, Shanghai First People’s Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 85 Wujin Road, Shanghai, 200080, China

    Hongyuan Chen, Junwei Fan, Junyi Wu, Guoqiang Qiu & Zhihai Peng

  2. Department of General Surgery, Provincial Hospital Affiliated To Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China

    Ruizheng Miao

  3. Department of General Surgery, Central Hospital of Zi Bo, Zi Bo, Shandong, China

    Zhongbo Han

  4. Department of Pathology, Shanghai First People’s Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Huamei Tang

Authors
  1. Hongyuan Chen
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  2. Ruizheng Miao
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  3. Junwei Fan
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  4. Zhongbo Han
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  5. Junyi Wu
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  6. Guoqiang Qiu
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  7. Huamei Tang
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  8. Zhihai Peng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhihai Peng.

Additional information

H. Chen, R. Miao and J. Fan contributed equally to this study.

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Chen, H., Miao, R., Fan, J. et al. Decreased expression of miR-126 correlates with metastatic recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma. Clin Exp Metastasis 30, 651–658 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10585-013-9569-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10585-013-9569-6

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