Zinc deficiency (ZD) increases the risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), and marginal ZD is prevalent in humans. In rats, marked-ZD (3 mg Zn/kg diet) induces a proliferative esophagus with a 5-microRNA signature (miR-31, -223, -21, -146b, -146a) and promotes ESCC. Here we report that moderate and mild-ZD (6 and 12 mg Zn/kg diet) also induced esophageal hyperplasia, albeit less pron...

Gastric cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies worldwide. The aberrant expression of microRNA-31 (miR-31) has been reported in gastric cancer; however, its regulation mechanisms are still unclear. Here, we confirmed that miR-31 expression was significantly decreased in gastric cancer tissue and cell lines. Ectopic expression of miR-31 potentially suppresses proliferation and induced earl...

BACKGROUND Dysregulation of miRNAs is associated with cancer development by coordinately suppressing abundant target genes. Emerging evidence indicates that miR-31 plays a dual role in tumorigenicity. However, whether miR-31 plays as an oncogene in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and the potential target molecules are still unclear. MiR-31 role in ESCC was investigated and an associat...

BACKGROUND Serous epithelial ovarian cancer (SEOC) is a highly metastatic disease and its progression has been implicated with microRNAs. This study aimed to identify the differentially expressed microRNAs in Malaysian patients with SEOC and examine the microRNAs functional roles in SEOC cells. METHODS Twenty-two SEOC and twenty-two normal samples were subjected to miRNA expression profiling ...

During neoplastic development, a multitude of changes in genome-encoded information are progressively selected to confer growth and survival advantages to tumor cells. microRNAs-mRNAs regulatory networks, given their role as a critical layer of robust gene expression control, are frequently altered in neoplasm. However, whether and how these gene perturbations impact metabolic homeostasis remai...

OBJECTIVES To identify differentially expressed miRNA between oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and non-cancer (NC) and to associate these with clinico-pathological parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS miRNA microarray profiling was utilized to obtain the expression profile of miRNAs in four OSCC and four NC samples. The expression of miR-31 and miR-375 was further validated in 26 OSCC and thr...

PURPOSE To analyse the relationship between the expression of TNFα and the characteristics of glioma cell line U251. METHODS U251 cell line was transfected with overexpressed TNFα or depleted TNFα constructs. The cell viability, proliferation and apoptosis were determined with MTT assay and flow cytometry analysis. The expressions of TNFα, caspase or microRNA (miR) were detected by Western bl...

MicroRNA-31 (miR-31) is among the most frequently altered microRNAs in human cancers and altered expression of miR-31 has been detected in a large variety of tumor types, but the functional role of miR-31 still hold both tumor suppressive and oncogenic roles in different tumor types. MiR-31 expression was down-regulated in a large cohort of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, and low expre...

Mesenchymal stem cells are multipotent adult stem cells capable of generating bone, cartilage and fat, and are thus currently being exploited for regenerative medicine. When considering osteogenesis, developments have been made with regards to chemical induction (e.g. differentiation media) and physical induction (e.g. material stiffness, nanotopography), targeting established early transcripti...

To understand why livers from aged donors are successfully used for transplants, we looked for markers of liver aging in 71 biopsies from donors aged 12-92 years before transplants and in 11 biopsies after transplants with high donor-recipient age-mismatch. We also assessed liver function in 36 age-mismatched recipients. The major findings were the following: (i) miR-31-5p, miR-141-3p, and miR-...