Increased levels of serum and tissue miR-107 in human gastric cancer: Correlation with tumor hypoxia

Abstract

MicroRNAs can function as oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in human cancers. The expression of miR-107 is high in various types of solid tumors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the tumor and serum level of miR-107 and its correlation to HIF-1α expression in gastric cancer patients. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to analyze the expression of miR-107 and HIF-1α in 36 pairs of fresh gastric cancer and matched adjacent normal tissue specimens and the serum of these patients compared to age matched controls. The expression level of miR-107 was significantly higher in tumor tissues compared to adjacent normal tissue (p= 0.04). For serum, the expression level of miR-107 was significantly higher in gastric cancer patients than in age matched controls (p= 0.04). The correlation between tumor and serum expression of miR-107 with tumor hypoxia was found to be significant (p≤ 0.001). The overexpression of miR-107 in tumors and serum of gastric cancer patients and its correlation with HIF-1α expression in tumor tissues was indicated that miR-107 may have a potential to use as a biomarker for detection of gastric cancer patients and hypoxia in gastric cancer tumor.