Differential expression of miR-24 and miR27a in cirrhotic/non cirrhotic HCC.

We have developed a small RNA expression library in the human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell line HA22T/VGH to identify new miRs and to obtain a miRs panel. In total, we have cloned 31 known miRs. miR-24, miR-27a and miR-21 were the most frequent miRs cloned. We determined their expression levels by qPCR in HCC tissues and in their PT counterparts from bioptic specimens of 33 HCC. miR-24 and miR-27a showed down-regulation in HCCs developed in cirrhotic liver tissues. On the contrary, miR-27a resulted upregulated in the non-cirrhotic group evidencing a different role of miR-27a in this HCC group. In the cirrhotic HCCs the down-regulation of miR-24 correlates with poorer prognosis (mean survival) in patients with HBV and HCV viruses infection. miR-21 resulted up-regulated in HCC respect to PT tissues and this became more evident in the group of HCC developed in non-cirrhotic liver. Moreover we have identified by sequence alignment the human miR orthologue of mus musculus miR-1199 not yet annotated in the miR registry. In summary, our results outline the miRs differential expression in cirrhotic/non-cirrhotic HCCs and this stimulates studies in the field of the molecular targeted therapy based on the miRs level restoration.