Circulating miR-141 as a potential biomarker for diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic targets in gallbladder cancer

MicroRNA-141(miR-141) has been reported to play vital roles in the regulation of carcinogenesis and cancer progression. However, the biological function of miR-141 in GBC has received less attention. The aim of this study was to estimate the potential value of the expression level of miR-141 as a diagnostic and prognostic blood-based biomarker in gallbladder cancer (GBC) patients. Meanwhile, to explore its biological role in GBC cells. RT-PCR was employed to confirm the expression of miR-141 in ten paired tissue samples (10 GBC tissues and 10 adjacent normal gallbladder tissues), GBC cell lines and peripheral blood specimens from 98 GBC patients and 60 healthy controls. MTT assay was used to evaluate the GBC cells proliferation and flow cytometry was used to detect the cell apoptosis. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and the area under the curve (AUC) were used to evaluate the value of miR-141 plasma levels for GBC diagnosis. Finally, clinicopathological and survival data of all GBC patients were collected and analyzed. Here, we confirmed that the expression of miR-141 were upregulated in primary gallbladder cancer cells and tissues compared with human gallbladder epithelial cells and adjacent normal tissues ( P