MicroRNA-552 expression in colorectal cancer and its clinicopathological significance

Im, Joon; Nam, Soo Kyung; Lee, Hye Seung

doi:.0.0.

Original Article

doi: https://doi.org/10.4132/jptm.2021.01.17 [Epub ahead of print]

MicroRNA-552 expression in colorectal cancer and its clinicopathological significance

Joon Im¹

, Soo Kyung Nam²

, Hye Seung Lee²

¹Department of Pathology, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Korea
²Department of Pathology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Corresponding Author: Hye Seung Lee ,Tel: +82-2-740-8269, Fax: +82-2-765-5600, Email: hye2@snu.ac.kr

Received: November 13, 2020; Revised: January 6, 2021 Accepted: January 17, 2021. Published online: February 19, 2021.

ABSTRACT

Background:
MicroRNA-552 (miR-552) has been reported to correlate with the development and progression of various cancers, including colorectal cancer (CRC). This study aimed to investigate miR-552 expression in cancer tissue samples compared to normal mucosal tissue and its role as a diagnostic or prognostic marker in CRC patients.
Methods:
Normal mucosal tissues and primary cancer tissues from 80 surgically resected CRC specimens were used. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed for miR-552 and U6 small nuclear RNA to analyze miR-552 expression and its clinicopathological significance. Immunohistochemistry for p53 and phosphatase and tension homolog (PTEN) was performed to evaluate their association with miR-552 expression.
Results:
miR-552 expression was significantly higher in primary cancer tissues compared to normal mucosal tissues (p<.001). The expression level of miR552 was inversely correlated with that of PTEN (p=.068) and p53 (p=.004). Survival analysis showed that high miR-552 expression was associated with worse prognosis but this was not statistically significant (p=.255). However, patients with CRC having high miR-552 expression and loss of PTEN expression had significantly worse prognosis than others (p=.029).
Conclusions:
Our results suggest that high miR-552 expression might be a potential diagnostic biomarker for CRC, and its combined analysis with PTEN expression can possibly be used as a prognostic marker.

Key Words: miR-552; Colorectal neoplasms; p53; PTEN; Prognosis