Choi YS, Lee KE. The Significance of miR-34a Expression in Endometrial Carcinogenesis: Correlation With Expression of p16 and Ki-67 Proteins in Endometrial Cancers.
J Cancer Prev 2015;
20:268-74. [PMID:
26734589 PMCID:
PMC4699754 DOI:
10.15430/jcp.2015.20.4.268]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2015] [Revised: 10/30/2015] [Accepted: 10/30/2015] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Background:
A microRNA, miR-34a, plays a key role in inhibiting cellular transformation and carcinogenesis by controlling cell cycle regulation and cell proliferation in various human tumors. However, miR-34a has rarely been reported in endometrial cancer research in Korea. This study was undertaken to analyze miR-34a expression in simple endometrial hyperplasia and endometrial cancer, and to evaluate the relationship between expression of miR-34a and p16 and Ki-67 proteins in endometrial cancers.
Methods:
A retrospective study was carried out on 66 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues with simple endometrial hyperplasia (31 cases) and endometrial cancer (35 cases) patients. These were analyzed for miR-34a expression by quantitative real-time PCR, and the expression of p16 and Ki-67 proteins in endometrial cancers was evaluated by immunohistochemistry.
Results:
The miR-34a expression level was lower in endometrial cancer tissues (−0.71 ± 3.90) than in simple endometrial hyperplasia tissues (2.68 ± 8.62). The endometrial hyperplasia tissues showed underexpression of miR-34a in 13 of the 31 cases (41.9%) while the endometrial cancer tissues showed underexpression of miR-34a in 24 of 35 cases (68.6%). Thus, miR-34a was significantly underexpressed in endometrial cancer tissues when compared endometrial hyperplasia tissues (P = 0.046). Overexpression of p16 was detected in 25 (71.4%) and Ki-67 immunoreactivity was detected in 27 (77.1%) of the 35 endometrial cancers. Although not statistically significant, the frequency of p16 and Ki-67 overexpression tended to be lower in the cases with miR-34a underexpression than in cases with miR-34a overexpression.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest that underexpression of miR-34a might be involved in endometrial carcinogenesis. Further studies are needed to define the relationship between miR-34a expression and tissue specific protein expression.
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