Definition of miRNAs expression profile in glioblastoma samples: the relevance of non-neoplastic brain reference

PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e55314. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055314. Epub 2013 Jan 29.

Abstract

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive brain tumor that may occur in adults. Regardless of the huge improvements in surgery and molecular therapy, the outcome of neoplasia remains poor. MicroRNAs are small molecules involved in several cellular processes, and their expression is altered in the vast majority of tumors. Several studies reported the expression of different miRNAs in glioblastoma, but one of the most critical point in understanding glioblastoma miRNAs profile is the comparison of these studies. In this paper, we focused our attention on the non-neoplastic references used for determining miRNAs expression. The aim of this study was to investigate if using three different non-neoplastic brain references (normal adjacent the tumor, commercial total RNA, and epileptic specimens) could provide discrepant results. The analysis of 19 miRNAs was performed using Real-Time PCR, starting from the set of samples described above and the expression values compared. Moreover, the three different normal RNAs were used to determine the miRNAs profile in 30 glioblastomas. The data showed that different non-neoplastic controls could lead to different results and emphasize the importance of comparing miRNAs profiles obtained using the same experimental condition.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Brain / metabolism*
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Profiling / methods*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / genetics
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / physiology*
  • Glioblastoma / metabolism*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • MicroRNAs / metabolism*
  • Middle Aged
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Reference Values
  • Statistics, Nonparametric

Substances

  • MicroRNAs

Grants and funding

No current external funding sources for this study. PERNO study group (Region Emilia Romagna, www.perno.it) contributed reagents. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.