Expression and Clinical Significance of miRNA-181d in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Objective To observe the expression of microRNA(miRNA, miR)-181d in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) tissues and to explore its clinical significance.

Methods Reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR(RT-qPCR) was used to detect the miR-181d expression in 37 cases of ESCC tissues and matched adjacent tissues. The correlations of miR-181d expression with clinicpathological features and clinical prognosis were analyzed.

Results miR-181d expression was up-regulated in 89.2%(33/37) of ESCC tissues, compared with the matched adjacent tissues (P < 0.01). The expression level of miR-181d was not significantly correlated with gender, age, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, histological grade or tumor location(P > 0.05), but significantly related to TNM staging (P < 0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the overall survival rate and the disease-free survival rate of the high miR-181d expression group was significantly lower than that of the low miR-181d expression group (P < 0.05).

Conclusion miR-181d expression is related to TNM and prognosis of ESCC patients. miR-181d may be used as a potential predictor to evaluate the prognosis of ESCC patients.