J Cancer Prev.  2015 Dec;20(4):268-274. 10.15430/JCP.2015.20.4.268.

The Significance of miR-34a Expression in Endometrial Carcinogenesis: Correlation With Expression of p16 and Ki-67 Proteins in Endometrial Cancers

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Clinical Laboratory Science, College of Health Sciences, Catholic University of Pusan, Busan, Korea. kelee@cup.ac.kr

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 (??.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.

Keyword

miR-34a; p16; Ki-67; Simple endometrial hyperplasia; Endometrial cancer

MeSH Terms

Carcinogenesis*
Cell Cycle
Cell Proliferation
Endometrial Hyperplasia
Endometrial Neoplasms*
Female
Humans
Immunohistochemistry
Korea
MicroRNAs
Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
Retrospective Studies
MicroRNAs
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