Department of Neurosurgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No. 1277, Jiefang Avenue, Wuhan, 430022, Hubei, People's Republic of China.
J Neurooncol. 2013 Jun;113(2):221-8. doi: 10.1007/s11060-013-1119-1. Epub 2013 Mar 26.
The aim of this study is to investigate the expression level of microRNA-34a (miR-34a) in glioma patients and its significance for predicting the prognosis of glioma. In this study, we examined the expression of miR-34a in glioma tissues of various World Health Organization (WHO) grades and explored the association between miR-34a expression and clinical and pathological parameters of glioma patients. We found that the tissues from high-grade gliomas (grade III and IV) had much lower miR-34a expression compared to normal brain tissues. The results of a 72-month follow-up in 146 glioma patients further demonstrated that miR-34a expression levels positively correlated with tumor WHO grades. Additionally, in the patients with grade III and IV gliomas, lower miR-34a expression correlated with worse progression-free survival and overall survival. Univariate and multivariate analysis revealed that miR-34a was an independent prognostic indicator for glioma. Additionally, we explored the correlation between miR-34a expression and p53 status and Bcl-2 expression in grade III and IV glioma tissues. Wild-type p53 tumors displayed significantly higher miR-34a expression level than mutant p53 tumors. In addition, glioma tissues with high miR-34a expression had dramatically lower Bcl-2 expression levels than tissues with low miR-34a expression. These findings indicate the role of miR-34a in tumor progression may be closely associated with p53 mutation and inversely correlated to Bcl-2 expression. In conclusion, our work presents comprehensive evidence for miR-34a expression as a novel and potentially useful signature for predicting prognosis of glioma.
本研究旨在探讨 microRNA-34a（miR-34a）在脑胶质瘤患者中的表达水平及其对脑胶质瘤预后预测的意义。在本研究中，我们检测了不同世界卫生组织（WHO）分级的脑胶质瘤组织中 miR-34a 的表达情况，并探讨了 miR-34a 表达与脑胶质瘤患者临床病理参数之间的关系。结果发现，高级别脑胶质瘤（III 级和 IV 级）组织中 miR-34a 的表达水平明显低于正常脑组织。对 146 例脑胶质瘤患者进行 72 个月的随访结果进一步表明，miR-34a 的表达水平与肿瘤 WHO 分级呈正相关。此外，在 III 级和 IV 级脑胶质瘤患者中，miR-34a 表达水平越低，与无进展生存期和总生存期越差相关。单因素和多因素分析显示，miR-34a 是脑胶质瘤的独立预后指标。此外，我们还探讨了 miR-34a 表达与 III 级和 IV 级脑胶质瘤组织中 p53 状态和 Bcl-2 表达的相关性。野生型 p53 肿瘤的 miR-34a 表达水平明显高于突变型 p53 肿瘤。此外，miR-34a 高表达的脑胶质瘤组织中 Bcl-2 的表达水平明显低于 miR-34a 低表达的组织。这些发现表明，miR-34a 在肿瘤进展中的作用可能与 p53 突变密切相关，与 Bcl-2 表达呈负相关。总之，我们的研究结果为 miR-34a 表达作为预测脑胶质瘤预后的一种新的潜在有用标志物提供了充分的证据。
