ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the expression of microRNA-31 and its association with clinicopathologic features in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The expression level of microRNA-31 in 62 cases of OSCC and matched non-tumor adjacent tissue specimens was examined using stem-loop real-time PCR. The relationship between the expression of microRNA-31 and its clinicopathologic features of OSCC was analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The expression of microRNA-31 was significantly higher in the tumor tissues than that in the adjacent tissues (P < 0.05).Up-regulated microRNA-31 expression was associated with the lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05) and cell differentiation (P < 0.05) in OSCC patients.No significant association was found between the expression of microRNA-31 and gender, age, lymph node metastasis, tumor size and location.Receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) of microRNA-31 about cell differentiation resulted in a diagnostic sensitivity of 70.4% and specificity of 89.5%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The up-regulated level of microRNA-31 expression may be related to the pathogenesis of OSCC.</p>