[High expression of miR-3682-3p is an unfavorable prognostic factor of hepatocellular carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the expression of miR-3682-3p in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its correlation with clinical parameters and prognosis of HCC.

METHODS

We conducted a bioinformatics analysis of the expression of miR-3682-3p in HCC and its correlation with the patients' survival, and examined its expression in 18 pairs of fresh and 90 pairs of paraffin-embedded HCC and adjacent tissues using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR and in situ hybridization, respectively. The correlation of miR-3682-3p expression in HCC with the clinical parameters and prognosis of the patients was analyzed. Multivariate regression analysis was used to explore the possibility of miR-3682-3p expression as an independent prognostic factor of HCC.

RESULTS

Bioinformatics analysis showed that miR-3682-3p was highly expressed in HCC and significantly correlated with the survival time of HCC patients (χ=8.793, < 0.001). The expression of miR-3682-3p was significantly up-regulated in fresh HCC tissues as compared with the adjacent liver tissues (=3.073, =0.007). In paraffin-embedded samples, in situ hybridization revealed positive miR-3682-3p expression in the cytoplasm of HCC and adjacent tissues, and its expression was signifcantly up-regulated in HCC tissues (=2.659, =0.009). The expression level of miR-3682-3p was significantly correlated with American Joint Commission on Cancer (AJCC; 8th edition) stage (χ=4.272, = 0.039), HBV surface antigen status (χ=5.143, =0.023), recurrence (χ=4.593, =0.032), tumor size (χ=4.580, =0.032) and Edmondson Steiner grade (χ=4.068, =0.044). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that a higher expression of miR-3682-3p was associated with a shorter overall survival time (χ=4.169, =0.041) and disease-free survival time (χ=4.078, =0.043) of the patients. Multivariate analysis suggested that miR-3682-3p expression was an independent predictor of the prognosis of HCC patients.

CONCLUSION

MiR-3682-3p is up-regulated in HCC to serve as a significant factor that contributes to the occurrence and a poor prognosis of HCC.