Title:The Biphasic Expression Pattern of miR-200a and E-cadherin in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer and its Correlation with Clinicopathological Features
Volume: 20
Issue: 11
Author(s): Shaohua Xu, Peizhen Xu, Wei Wu, Yangjun Ou, Juan Xu, Guanghua Zhang, Jinping Li and Guofeng Xu
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Epithelial ovarian cancer, microRNA, miR-200a, E-cadherin.
Abstract: Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the leading cause of death among gynecologic malignancies. Despite great efforts to improve
early detection and optimize chemotherapeutic regimens, the 5-year survival rate is only 30% for patients presenting with late-stage
ovarian cancer. The high mortality of this disease is due to late diagnosis in over 70% of ovarian cancer cases. A class of small noncoding
RNAs, or microRNAs, was found to regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Some, but not all, of the data indicated that
the miR-200 family was dysregulated in a variety of malignancies. In this study, we demonstrated that miR-200a and E-cadherin were
significantly upregulated in EOC compared to benign epithelial ovarian cysts and normal ovarian tissues. However, further stratification
of the subject indicated that the expression levels of miR-200a were significantly downregulated in late-stage (FIGO III+V) and grade 3
groups compared with early stage (FIGO I+II) and grade 1 to 2 groups. Similarly, relatively low levels of miR-200a were observed in the
lymph compared to the node-negative group. E-cadherin expression was found to be absent in normal ovarian tissue and was frequently
expressed in benign epithelial ovarian cysts, with absence or low levels observed in late-stage ovarian cancers. There was a significantly
positive correlation between miR-200a and E-cadherin in EOC. The biphasic expression pattern suggested that miR-200a levels may
serve as novel biomarkers for the early detection of EOC, and miR-200a and E-cadherin are candidate targets for the development of new
treatment modalities against ovarian cancer.
