乳腺癌患者血浆中三种microRNA的表达水平分析

  目的  分析乳腺癌患者血浆、血清中三种microRNA（miRNA）的表达水平，探讨血浆、血清中miRNA表达水平之间关系以及血浆中miRNA作为乳腺癌肿瘤标志物的可行性。  方法  于2010年12月至2011年3月间收集符合入选条件的31例患者的血液标本，分离血浆、血清，提取其中miRNA，通过定量PCR，检测其中miR-31、miR-155及miR-200c表达水平。  结果  三种miRNA在血清、血浆中表达水平基本相同；乳腺癌患者血浆中的miR-155较非乳腺癌表达上调，miR-200c表达下调；两组间miR-31表达差异无统计学意义；miR-155的表达与肿瘤的大小、淋巴结转移、临床病理分期、ER、PR表达状态有关；miR-200c的表达与肿瘤的大小、淋巴结转移、临床病理分期、ER表达状态有关，与PR的表达状态无关；miR-31的表达与肿瘤的大小有关，与淋巴结转移、临床病理分期、ER、PR表达状态无关。  结论  乳腺癌患者血清、血浆中三种miRNA的表达水平相同；血浆中三种miRNA的表达与乳腺癌的临床病理特征密切相关，因此血浆中miRNA有望成为乳腺癌新一代的肿瘤标志物。 

Expression of Three MicroRNAs in Plasma of Breast Cancer Patients

  Objective  To analyze the expression of three microRNAs (miRNAs) in the serum and plasma of breast cancer patients and to obtain the relationship between the serum and plasma of these patients. Moreover, the current study aims to explore the possibility of miRNA in plasma as a marker for breast cancer.  Methods  The blood preparations of 31 cases that were registered in the Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Huai'an No. 1 People's Hospital between December 2010 and March 2011 were enrolled based on the inclusion criteria. The nonanticoagulated and anticoagulated blood were sampled to extract serum and plasma, and then miRNA was isolated from the serum and plasma. The expression levels of miR-31, miR-155, and miR-200c in the serum and plasma were measured using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis.  Results  The expression levels of the three miRNAs in the serum were similar to those in the plasma. The expression level of miR-155 was upregulated and the expression of miR-200c was downregulated in the plasma of breast cancer patients compared with the patients without breast cancer. The expression of miR-31 between the two groups had no significant differences. On the other hand, the expression level of miR-155 had a close correlation with breast tumor size, breast cancer staging, lymph node metastasis, and the status of ER and PR. The expression of miR-200c was also closely correlated with the factors mentioned above, except for the status of PR. The expression of miR-31 was upregulated with the size of breast cancer, and had no distinct correlation with the other factors mentioned above.  Conclusion  The current study demonstrated that the expression of miR-31, miR-155, and miR-200c between serum and plasma was similar. Moreover, the expression had close correlations with the clinicopathologic features of breast cancer, indicating that miRNA can be used as a potential marker for breast cancer.