Diagnostic value and mechanism study of microRNA-301 in hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective To explore the diagnostic value of microRNA-301 in hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods From January 2014 to July 2015, preoperative serum specimens of fifity-two patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in Zhongshan City People’s Hospital were collected as experimental group. Serum samples from 38 healthy subjects were collected as control. The level of microRNA-301 gene expression in two groups was measured by quantitative PCR and compared with independent sample t test. The ROC curve was used to explore the diagnostic truncation value and effectiveness. The relationship between the expression level of microRNA-301 and the clinicopathological parameters of hepatocellular carcinoma were preliminary analyzed. Correlation analysis and variance analysis were used to verify association of microRNA-301 level with Barcelona staging in hepatocellular carcinoma. Results (1) The relative expression level of serum microRNA-301 in the experimental group was 0.035±0.014, which was significantly higher than that in the control group (0.021±0.012), the difference was statistically significant (t=4.793, P<0.001). (2) The best cut off value of ROC curve was 0.203 850, sensitivity was 86.5%, specificity was 63.2%, the area under ROC curve was 0.77 (P<0.01), and the diagnostic effectiveness was certain. (3) The relative expression level of microRNA-301 was not significantly correlated with age, sex and tumor size (P=0.409, 0.236, 0.096), while correlated with Barcelona stage, portal vein tumor thrombus, AFP level and HBsAg positivity (P=0.001, 0.017,0.007, <0.001). Barcelona staging had relatively large effect on prognosis, and the correlation coefficient of Pearson was 0.825 (P<0.001). (4) There were 7, 25 and 20 cases in the early, middle and late stages of Barcelonastaging, respectively. One-way ANOVA analysis showed that there was no significant difference in the relative expression level of microRNA-301 between the early and middle stages of patients (P=0.545), while the late stage was significantly higher than the early and middle stages (P=0.006, <0.001). Conclusions microRNA-301, as an oncogene microRNA, is up-regulated in the serum of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The relative expression level of microRNA-301 is associated with Barcelona staging, portal vein tumor thrombus, AFP and HBsAg, and has certain diagnostic value for hepatocellular carcinoma. Key words: Carcinoma, hepatocellular; MicroRNAs; MicroRNA-301; Diagnostic value