Objective: To determine the micro-ribonucleic acid-20a expression in hepatocellular carcinoma patients and its correlation with patients’ demographic data, clinico-pathological and staging characteristics.
Methods: The case-control study was conducted from January to December 2014 at Isra University, Hyderabad, and comprised samples of hepatocellular carcinoma patients collected from two hospitals in Karachi and one in Hyderabad. Patients infected with chronic hepatitis B and C infections formed group-I and group-II and were compared with healthy controls in group-III. SPSS 21 was used for data analysis.
Results: There were 225 subjects divided into three equal groups of 75(33.3%) each. Among the controls, 57(76.0%) showed up-regulation, whereas 66(88.0%) in group-I and 50(66.7%) in group-II showed decreased expression. Micro-ribonucleic acid-20a showed significant down-regulation in group-I compared to group-II (p<0.001). Significant correlation of the down-regulation was found with male gender, age below 50 years and alphafetoprotein level below 20ng/ml (p<0.05).
Conclusions: Micro-ribonucleic acid-20a expression was found to be decreased in hepatocellular carcinoma patients with significant correlation with gender, age and alpha-fetoprotein level..
【저자키워드】 Hepatocellular carcinoma, Micro RNA, Child Pugh score, Viral hepatitis..,