MicroRNA expression profiles in supraglottic carcinoma

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are single-stranded RNA molecules which regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level and several miRNAs have been found to be associated with some types of cancer. We sought to identify the expression and involvement of miRNAs in supraglottic carcinoma tissues compared with normal tissues and to determine whether miRNA expression is predictive of disease. Unsupervised clustering shows that miRNA profiles can distinguish tumor from normal tissues. Analysis of miRNA contents in supraglottic carcinoma highlighted nineteen differentially expressed miRNAs, three upregulated miRNAs (miR-21, miR-19a, miR-33a) and two downregulated miRNAs (miR-206, miR-375). The microarray results of supraglottic carcinoma and related computer analysis may be beneficial for further analysis of cancer diagnosis and therapy.