Decreased expression of LncRNA SRA1 in hepatocellular carcinoma and its clinical significance

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is an extremely aggressive malignancy with poor prognosis and high fatality rates worldwide. Accumulating evidence indicated that novel biomarkers are required to get a better understanding of the biological mechanisms of HCC. SRA1, a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), serves as a critical regulator in several cancers. However, the association between SRA1 expression and tumorigenesis in HCC tissues remains unclear. OBJECTIVE: In the present study, we evaluated the expression of SRA1 in HCC and its clinical association. METHODS: The expression levels of SRA1 in 67 pairs of cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues from HCC patients were detected using quantitative real-time PCR. Expression of SRA1 in HCC cell lines compared with normal human hepatocyte cell lines was also measured. Finally, the potential associations between its level in HCC tissues and the clinicopathological parameters were analyzed as well. RESULTS: The results indicated that the expression levels of SRA1 in HCC were remarkably decreased, compared with matched normal tissues (P < 0.001). Levels of SRA1 in HCC cell lines were also significantly decreased than that in normal human hepatocyte cell line L-02. Additionally, the levels of SRA1 were significantly associated with tumor size (P = 0.020) and serum GLU level (P = 0.046). CONCLUSIONS: This study highlighted that SRA1 was downregulated in HCC and might serve as a tumor suppressor in HCC, which laid a solid foundation for future research.