Institute of Pathology, Medical University of Graz, Austria.
Swiss Med Wkly. 2011 Oct 24;141:w13287. doi: 10.4414/smw.2011.13287. eCollection 2011.
In recent years, enormous progress has been made in identifying microRNAs (miRNAs) as important regulators of gene expression and their association with or control of various liver diseases such as fibrosis, hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Indeed, many genes encoding miRNAs as well as their targets have been described and their direct or indirect link to the respective liver diseases has been investigated in various experimental systems as well as in human tissue. Here we discuss current knowledge of miRNAs and their involvement in liver diseases, elaborating in particular on the contribution of miRNAs to hepatitis, fibrosis and HCC formation. We also debate possible prognostic, predictive and therapeutic values of respective miRNAs in liver diseases. The discovery of liver disease related miRNAs has constituted a major breakthrough in liver research and will most likely be of high relevance for future therapeutic strategies, especially when dealing with hepatitis, fibrosis and HCC.
近年来，人们在鉴定 microRNAs（miRNAs）作为基因表达的重要调控因子及其与各种肝脏疾病（如纤维化、肝炎和肝细胞癌（HCC））的关联或对其的控制方面取得了巨大进展。事实上，许多编码 miRNAs 的基因及其靶基因已经被描述，并且它们与各自肝脏疾病的直接或间接联系已经在各种实验系统以及人类组织中进行了研究。在这里，我们讨论了 miRNAs 的最新知识及其在肝脏疾病中的作用，特别强调了 miRNAs 对肝炎、纤维化和 HCC 形成的贡献。我们还讨论了 miRNA 在肝脏疾病中的可能的预后、预测和治疗价值。与肝脏疾病相关的 miRNA 的发现是肝脏研究的一个重大突破，并且在未来的治疗策略中很可能具有重要意义，特别是在处理肝炎、纤维化和 HCC 时。
