Research

Identification by Real-time PCR of 13 mature microRNAs differentially expressed in colorectal cancer and non-tumoral tissues

E Bandrés¹ , E Cubedo¹ , X Agirre² , R Malumbres¹ , R Zárate¹ , N Ramirez¹ , A Abajo¹ , A Navarro³ , I Moreno⁴ , M Monzó³ and J García-Foncillas¹

¹  Laboratory of Pharmacogenomics, Cancer Research Program (Center for Applied Medical Research), University of Navarra, Navarra, Spain

²  Division of Cancer and Area of Cell Therapy and Hematology Service (Center for Applied Medical Research), University of Navarra, Navarra, Spain

³  Department of Human Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

⁴  Department of Medical Oncology, Hospital Municipal Badalona, Badalona, Spain

author email corresponding author email

Molecular Cancer 2006, 5:29doi:10.1186/1476-4598-5-29

Published:	19 July 2006

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNA molecules playing regulatory roles by repressing translation or cleaving RNA transcripts. Although the number of verified human miRNA is still expanding, only few have been functionally described. However, emerging evidences suggest the potential involvement of altered regulation of miRNA in pathogenesis of cancers and these genes are thought to function as both tumours suppressor and oncogenes.

In our study, we examined by Real-Time PCR the expression of 156 mature miRNA in colorectal cancer. The analysis by several bioinformatics algorithms of colorectal tumours and adjacent non-neoplastic tissues from patients and colorectal cancer cell lines allowed identifying a group of 13 miRNA whose expression is significantly altered in this tumor. The most significantly deregulated miRNA being miR-31, miR-96, miR-133b, miR-135b, miR-145, and miR-183. In addition, the expression level of miR-31 was correlated with the stage of CRC tumor.

Our results suggest that miRNA expression profile could have relevance to the biological and clinical behavior of colorectal neoplasia.