Clinical significance of miR-10a expression in gastric cancer tissues

Objective To explore the association between the miR-10a expression in gastric cancer tissues and the clinicopathologic features of gastric cancer.Methods Expression of miR-10a in 92 specimens of gastric cancer tissue and 20 specimens of normal gastric tissue was examined by stem-loop realtime RT-PCR.The association between miR-10a expression level and clinicopathologic features of gastric cancer was analyzed.Results The stem-loop real-time RT-PCR was sensitive and specific in miR-10a detection.The expression of miR-10a in gastric cancer tissues (11.073± 1.874) was significantly higher than that in normal gastric tissues (1.083 ± 0.126) (P＜0.01),significantly higher in gastric cancer tissues with lymph node metastases (12.893± 1.946) than that in those without lymph node metastases (8.249± 1.757) (P＜0.01),and significantly higher in cases of TNM stages Ⅲ-Ⅳ as compared to those of TNM stages Ⅰ-Ⅱ (P＜0.01).However it was not significantly associated with gender,age or differentiation of cancer (P＞0.05).Conclusions MiR-10a expression is higher in gastric cancer tissues than that in normal gastric tissues,and is associated with lymph node metastases and TNM stage of gastric cancer.MiR-10a may play an important role in the development of gastric cancer and may be a promising target for gastric cancer therapy. Key words: MicroRNAs; Stomach neoplasms; Neoplasm metastasis; miR-10a