Abstract
Dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been found to be associated with a variety of diseases, including epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Recently, miR-100 was reported to be downregulated in human ovarian carcinoma, however, the clinical significance and functional roles of miR-100 expression in human EOC are unclear. TaqMan real-time quantitative RT-PCR assay was performed to detect the expression of miR-100 in 98 EOC tissues and 15 adjacent normal epithelial tissues. The relationship between miR-100 expression and clinicopathological factors in 98 EOC patients was statistically analyzed. The effect of miR-100 expression on patient survival was determined. Finally, the role of miR-100 in EOC cell growth and its possible mechanisms were analyzed with miR-100 precursor or inhibitor-transfected cells. We showed that the level of miR-100 was significantly lower in EOC tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues. Low miR-100 expression was found to be closely correlated with advanced FIGO stage, higher serum CA125 expression level and lymph node involvement. Also, low miR-100 expression was correlated with shorter overall survival of EOC patients, and multivariate analysis showed that the status of miR-100 expression was an independent predictor of overall survival in EOC. Additionally, miR-100 could affect the growth of EOC cells by post-transcriptionally regulating polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) expression. Together, these results suggest that low miR-100 expression may be an independent poor prognostic factor and miR-100 can function as a tumor suppressor by targeting PLK1 in human EOCs.