miR‑17‑92 host gene, uderexpressed in gastric cancer and its expression was negatively correlated with the metastasis.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate the expression of miR‑17‑92 host gene (MIR17HG), in gastric cancer and paired normal adjacent tissues for the 1st time. METHODS: Using quantitative real‑time‑polymerase chain reaction, the MIR17HG expression was assessed in 30 paired tumoral and nontumoral gastric tissue samples. RESULTS: Our results showed that this transcript was significantly underexpressed in gastric tumors compared with normal ones. Furthermore, there was an association between the expression levels of MIR17HG and gastric cancer grades and stages. Moreover, the expression level of MIR17HG was conversely associated with the size of tumoral specimens in early stages (stages I and II). We also observed an association between the presence of metastasis and lower expression of MIR17HG. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that MIR17HG gene expression is dysregulated in gastric cancer in which it may indicate a tumor suppressive function of this miRNA cluster host gene in gastric cancer.

stem cell self-renewal gene, Musashi 1, is highly expressed in tumor and non-tumor samples of human bladder.

CONTEXT: The stem cell model for cancer assumes that a key event in tumorigenesis is the deregulation of genes involved in the regulation of stem cell self-renewal. The Musashi family is an evolutionarily conserved group of neural RNA-binding proteins. In mammals, the family consists of two individual genes, Musashi 1 (MSI1) and MSI2, encoding the Musashi 1 and Musashi 2 proteins. Musashi 1 is involved in the regulation of self-renewal of stem cells. Recently, its over-expression has also been reported in a variety of human tumors. AIMS: To investigate a potential expression of the stem cell self-renewal gene, Musashi 1, in human bladder cancer, we examined its gene expression in a series of tumor and non-tumor tissue samples of bladder. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Relative expression of MSI1 was determined by the real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in 70 surgical samples of bladder. RESULTS: Using specific primers for MSI1 and TBP (as an internal control) for qRT-PCR technique, we found a relatively high expression level of MSI1 in all examined tumor and non-tumor bladder tissue specimens. However, our data did not show any correlation between the level of gene expression and tumor/non-tumor states of the samples (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: All together, our data demonstrated that Musashi 1 is highly and un-differentially expressed in both examined tumoral and apparently normal bladder tissues.