Department of General Surgery, Yidu Central Hospital of Weifang, Weifang, Shandong 262500, P.R. China.
Department of General Surgery, Weifang People's Hospital, Weifang, Shandong 261041, P.R. China.
Oncol Rep. 2017 Nov;38(5):2735-2740. doi: 10.3892/or.2017.5994. Epub 2017 Sep 25.
The present study investigated the relationship between the expression of miR-146a and miR‑146b with the occurrence and prognosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma. Experiments in vitro were also used to explore the effect of the knocked down expression of the miRNAs on growth and migration of papillary thyroid carcinoma cells. A total of 73 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma admitted to Yidu Central Hospital of Weifang from September 2013 to September 2015 were enrolled in the study. Carcinoma samples were obtained from each patient, and adjacent tissues were used as control samples to determine expression levels of miR-146a and miR146b by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. An analysis was conducted to find possible correlations between the miRNAs expression levels and clinicopathological features in the patients followed up for one year after diagnosis. Additionally, to examine the function of miR-146a and miR‑146b on TPC-1 cells, the expression of miRNAs was knocked down using specific siRNAs. MTT and Transwell assays were used to evaluate cell proliferation and migration, respectively, in the miRNA cell lines. Finally, western blot analysis was used to analyze the expression of IRAK1 in PTC cancer cells. Our results showed that the expression levels of miR-146a and miR-146b in carcinoma tissues were significantly higher than the levels in cancer-free tissues (p<0.01). The relative expression levels of miR-146a and miR-146b in cancerous tissues could be associated with the pathological type and presence or absence of lymph node metastasis (p<0.05). Compared with the siRNA-control cell, MTT and Transwell assays showed that the cell growth and migration of TPC-1 cells were decreased in miR-146a and miR-146b low expression cells (p<0.01). Western blot analysis showed that the expression of IRAK1 in papillary thyroid carcinoma was higher than in adjacent tissue (p<0.01). Based on our findings, the expression of miR-146a and miR-146b correlates with the occurrence and prognosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma, and the expression levels of miR-146a and miR-146b seem to affect the cell proliferation and migration and regulate the expression of IRAK1 protein in cancer cells. Further studies are needed to validate our results to provide new targets for prevention and treatment of papillary thyroid carcinoma.
本研究旨在探讨 miR-146a 和 miR-146b 的表达与甲状腺乳头状癌（PTC）发生和预后的关系。此外，还进行了体外实验，以探索敲低 miRNA 表达对 PTC 细胞生长和迁移的影响。
选取 2013 年 9 月至 2015 年 9 月于我院就诊的 73 例 PTC 患者作为研究对象，取患者癌组织标本，另取癌旁组织作为对照，采用半定量 RT-PCR 检测 miR-146a 和 miR146b 的表达水平。对患者进行为期 1 年的随访，分析 miRNA 表达水平与患者临床病理特征的可能相关性。此外，为了研究 miR-146a 和 miR-146b 对 TPC-1 细胞的作用，采用特异性 siRNA 敲低 miRNA 的表达。采用 MTT 法和 Transwell 法分别评估 miRNA 细胞系的细胞增殖和迁移能力，最后采用 Western blot 分析 IRAK1 在 PTC 癌细胞中的表达。
结果显示，癌组织中 miR-146a 和 miR-146b 的表达水平明显高于癌旁组织（p<0.01）。癌组织中 miR-146a 和 miR-146b 的相对表达水平与病理类型和有无淋巴结转移有关（p<0.05）。与 siRNA 对照组相比，MTT 和 Transwell 实验显示 miR-146a 和 miR-146b 低表达细胞 TPC-1 细胞的生长和迁移能力降低（p<0.01）。Western blot 分析显示，甲状腺乳头状癌组织中 IRAK1 的表达高于癌旁组织（p<0.01）。
综上所述，miR-146a 和 miR-146b 的表达与 PTC 的发生和预后相关，miR-146a 和 miR-146b 的表达水平似乎影响细胞增殖和迁移，并调节 IRAK1 蛋白在癌细胞中的表达。进一步的研究需要验证我们的结果，为 PTC 的防治提供新的靶点。
