Clinical significance of miR-195 in hepatocellular carcinoma and its biological function in tumor progression

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most lethal cancer types all over the world. Chronic viral hepatitis B and hepatitis C are risk factors that are associated with the development of HCC. The aim of this study is to identify the diagnostic role of serum miR-195 in HCC. Patients and methods: The expression levels of miR-195 were detected in 120 HCC patients, 64 hepatitis only patients, and 118 healthy control as well as 4 HCC cell lines, by using quantitative real-time PCR. The association of miR-195 with clinicopathological parameters of patients was analyzed with the chi-squared test. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was adopted to estimate the potential diagnostic value of miR-195. The cell experiments were carried out to verify the functional role of miR-195. Results: The expression of miR-195 was downregulated in HCC cells and serum of patients compared to the controls (all P<0.05). The miR-195 expression was associated with lymph node metastasis and TNM stage. The ROC curve analysis showed that miR-195 may be a noninvasive diagnostic marker for patients. By using miR-195 mimic or inhibitor, cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were inhibited by miR-195 overexpression but promoted by reduced expression of miR-195. Conclusion: The downregulation of miR-195 may serve as a novel diagnostic biomarker for differentiating HCC patients, healthy individuals, and hepatitis patients, and may involve in the tumor progression of HCC.