OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS We aimed to determine the microRNA-21 expression in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and assess the association between the disease and clinical characteristics of patients. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective case-control study. METHODS A retrospective study was conducted from January 2005 to May 2011, in a tertiary hospital following tumor resection in 72 patients with laryn...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of 18-27-nucleotides single-stranded RNA molecules that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. It has been demonstrated that miRNAs regulate a variety of physiological functions, including development, cell differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis. There are growing evidence showed that miRNAs can affect the genesis and development of tum...

Pulmonary endothelial cell apoptosis is a transient, yet defining pathogenic event integral to the onset of many pulmonary vascular diseases such as pulmonary hypertension (PH). However, there is a paucity of information concerning the molecular pathway(s) that control pulmonary arterial endothelial cell apoptosis. Here, we introduce a molecular axis that when functionally active seems to induc...

1. Thum T, et al. MicroRNA-21 contributes to myocardial disease by stimulating MAP kinase signaling in fibroblasts. Nature. 2008;456(7224):980–984. 2. Patrick DM, et al. Stress-dependent cardiac remodeling occurs in the absence of miR-21 in mice. J Clin Invest. 2010;120(11):3912–3916. 3. Hatley ME, et al. Modulation of K-Ras-dependent lung tumorigenesis by microRNA-21. Cancer Cell. 2010;18(3):2...

Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCC) is a common disease that arises by at least two different molecular pathways. The biology of UCC is incompletely understood, making the management of this disease difficult. Recent evidence implicates a regulatory role for microRNA in cancer. We hypothesized that altered microRNA expression contributes to UCC carcinogenesis. To test this hypothesis, we ...

BACKGROUND MicroRNAs are 20-22 nucleotide molecular structures with post-transcriptional activity that are involved in the immune response, as well as in the inflammatory pathways of different cells and tissues. AIMS We present herein a prospective study in which serum microRNA-21 expression was determined in patients diagnosed with acute appendicitis as a model of bowel inflammation. MATER...

MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) is consistently up-regulated in various neurological disorders, including epilepsy. Here, we show that the biogenesis of miR-21 is altered following pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus (SE) with an increase in precursor miR-21 (pre-miR-21) in rats. We demonstrate that pre-miR-21 has an energetically favorable site overlapping with the miR-21 binding site and competes wit...

Cordycepin is an active component extracted from Traditional Chinese medical herb Cordyceps militaris. Many reports demonstrated that cordycepin harbors antitumor activity in a broad spectrum of cancer types. In this study the actions and the underneath molecular mechanisms of cordycepin were investigated in renal cell carcinoma Caki-1 cell line. Results showed that cordycepin induced apoptotic...