BACKGROUND Hypoxia-induced renal tubular cell epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important event leading to renal fibrosis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that bind to their mRNA targets, thereby leading to translational repression. The role of miRNA in hypoxia-induced EMT is largely unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS miRNA profiling was performed for th...

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most prevalent primary malignant bone tumor in children and young adults, its complex etiology involving a combination of environmental and genetic factors. MicroRNA (miRNA) is a short, non‑coding regulatory RNA molecule that represses gene expression by imperfectly base‑pairing to the 3' untranslated region of target mRNAs. Evidence has shown that alterations in the ex...

Lung cancer is among the most lethal malignancies with a high metastasis and recurrence rate, which is probably due to the existence of lung cancer stem cells (CSCs). CSCs in many tumors including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have been identified using adhesion molecular CD44, either individually or in combination with other marker(s). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate both normal stem cells an...

BACKGROUND Results from DNA microarray experiments have shown that the expression of miR-34s undergoes significant changes following spinal cord injury (SCI). The present study was designed to detect changes in the expression of miR-34s and its target genes during the acute and sub-acute stages of SCI. MATERIAL AND METHODS Luxol fast blue (LFB) staining for myelin was used to observe the differ...

Abstract Background Mounting evidence shows that microRNA-34a (miR-34a) is involved in cancer prognosis. Therefore, we summarize the predictive role of miR-34a for survival patients with gastrointestinal cancers (GICs). Methods All eligible studies were found by searching PubMed, Web Science and EMBASE, results extracted. Then, hazard ratio (HR) corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) was ca...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are vital in the regulation of tumor progression and invasion. Dysregulation of miRNAs has been linked to the development of various types of human cancers, including non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the effect of miRNA-34a (miR-34a), a key regulator of tumor suppression, on the tumorigenesis of NSCLC has not been fully elaborated. Herein, we reveal that miR-34a i...

Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) induces megakaryocytic differentiation of the human chronic myelocytic leukemia cell line K562. We examined the potential regulatory role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in this process. Genome-wide expression profiling identified 21 miRNAs (miRs) that were induced by the treatment of K562 cells with PMA. Among them, the expression of miR-34a, miR-221, and miR-222 wa...

Within the family of RTKs (receptor tyrosine kinases), PDGFR (platelet-derived growth factor receptor) has been implicated in carcinogenesis and tumour development. miRNAs (microRNAs), which can target the mRNAs (messenger RNAs) of cancer-associated genes, are abnormally expressed in various cancers. In this study, our aim was to identify the miRNAs that target PDGFR-α/β and to study the functi...

Accumulating evidence suggests a role for microRNAs in human carcinogenesis as novel types of tumor suppressors or oncogenes. However, their precise biological role remains largely elusive. In the present study, we aimed to identify microRNA species involved in the regulation of cell proliferation. Using quantitative RT-PCR analysis, we demonstrated that miR-34a was highly up-regulated in a hum...

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the frequent malignant tumors with poor prognosis worldwide. Identifying the prognostic biomarkers and potential mechanisms of such tumors has attracted increasing interest in esophageal cancer biology. Our previous study showed that phospholipase C elipson 1 (PLCE1) expression is up-regulated and associated with disease progression in esophag...