Upregulation of miR-371-373 cluster, a human embryonic stem cell specific microRNA cluster, in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Abstract

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is the most common subtype of esophageal cancer in Iran. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of noncoding RNAs that are found to be involved in different processes and can play a role in tumorigenesis and result in cancer. MiR-371, miR-372, and miR-373 are a gene cluster that is located in the region of the human chromosome of 19q13.4. They are specifically expressed in human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and involved in the maintenance of the stemness features through regulating the expression of certain key genes and signaling pathways. The present study investigated the potential expression of miR-371-373 cluster in tumor and nontumor tissues of ESCC. The expression level of miR-371-373 cluster was analyzed in paraffin-embedded tissues of tumor and tumor margin in 36 patients with ESCC. Total RNA was isolated and the miR-371-373 clusters were quantified with quantitative real-time-polymerase chain reaction expression analysis. Computed tomography analysis (2-ΔΔCT) and t-test were used to determine the relationship between the characteristics of the tumor and nontumor tissues. Statistically, P value of <0.05 were considered significant. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 16. We provided miR-371, miR-372, and miR-373 upregulation evidence significantly with 14.36, 26.9, and 21.1-fold in esophageal cancer cells compared with their adjacent normal cells (P < 0.05), respectively. In addition, evaluation of these genes expression in various grades didn't show a significant difference. Our findings support the hypothesis that these miRNAs might play a role in tumorigenesis in esophageal cancer.