Department of Medical, Surgical and Neurological Sciences, University of Siena, Siena, Italy.
J Endocrinol Invest. 2019 Jan;42(1):97-100. doi: 10.1007/s40618-018-0880-6. Epub 2018 Mar 24.
MiRNAs are small endogenous non-coding RNAs implicated with gene expression regulation. Changes in miRNA levels have been reported in thyroid cancer. Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is the most reliable tool for differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules.
We have analyzed 174 FNAC from 168 patients with thyroid nodules for expression levels of 11 miRNAs (miRNA197; -187; -181b-3p; -181b-5p; -224; -181a; 146b; -221; -222; -155 and miRNA183) known to be up-regulated in cancer tissues compared to benign lesions. Expression of miRNAs was analyzed in FNA samples calculating the fold change of miRNA expression relative to normal thyroid tissue after normalization to an endogenous control.
In FNAC, miRNA expression was confirmed to be higher in malignant or suspicious for malignancy nodules compared to benign, only for miRNA146b, -222 and -221 (fold change expression ≥ 5).
In this study, we confirmed that a limited set of miRNAs can be used for the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules.
miRNAs 是小的内源性非编码 RNA，与基因表达调控有关。甲状腺癌中报道了 miRNA 水平的变化。细针穿刺细胞学（FNAC）是鉴别甲状腺结节的最可靠工具。
我们分析了 168 例甲状腺结节患者的 174 例 FNAC，用于分析 11 种 miRNA（miRNA197；-187；-181b-3p；-181b-5p；-224；-181a；146b；-221；-222；-155 和 miRNA183）的表达水平，这些 miRNA 在癌症组织中与良性病变相比上调。在 FNA 样本中分析 miRNA 的表达，在标准化到内源性对照后，计算 miRNA 表达相对于正常甲状腺组织的倍数变化。
在 FNAC 中，与良性结节相比，恶性或疑似恶性结节中 miRNA 的表达被证实更高，仅 miRNA146b、-222 和-221（表达倍数变化≥5）。
在这项研究中，我们证实了一组有限的 miRNA 可用于甲状腺结节的鉴别诊断。
