miR-29a/b Enhances Cell Migration and Invasion in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Progression by Regulating SPARC and COL3A1 Gene Expression
Fig 7
miR-29b is associated with specific risk groups and NPC patient survival.
(A, B) Comparison of the miR-29a/b abundance in paired NPC tumors (42 NPC patients) and adjacent normal tissues (42 normal controls). The solid squares represent the relative expression level of miR-29a/b. The miR-29a/b abundance for each paired non-tumor and tumor tissues were separately shown in the left and right parts and connected by a dash line. (C, D) The expression levels of miR-29a/b in serum were quantified by real-time PCR in 83 patients with highly metastatic/invasive, 110 patients with low metastatic/non-invasive cancer and 65 healthy donors. (C) There was a small change in miR-29a expression in NPC patients and healthy donors, as well as patients with high risk for metastasis and the low-risk group. The formula used to calculate the relative Ct values was (ΔCt = assay Ct − control Ct). A higher ΔCt value indicates that the miRNA is less abundant in a sample. (D) miR-29b was significantly up-regulated in the NPC patients at high-risk for metastasis compared with the low-risk group. (E) Kaplan–Meier survival curves of NPC patients. No significant differences were observed in OS rates between patients with high and low miR-29a expression. (F) The 5-year overall survival rate of NPC patients with high serum miR-29b expression was significantly lower than that of those with low serum miR-29b expression (p < 0.001).