Hepatoblastoma and microRNA-483 Two Forms and One Outcome

Abstract

Hepatoblastoma (HB) is the most common liver cancer in infants younger than 3 years. Its onset has been associated with other genetic syndromes and some genetic and biochemical markers has been identified recently in this neoplasia. Nevertheless the patients have a poor prognosis and the resection or transplantation remains the only effective therapeutic approach. The identification of non-invasive markers may represent an innovative approach and may contribute to a more accurate histological classification of this tumor. We previously demonstrated that some microRNAs are helpful in discriminating HB from hepatocellular carcinoma. In this study, we describe the involvement of the two forms of microRNA-483 (-3p and -5p) in a selected cohort of HB patients who underwent surgical resection or liver transplantation. Differently from other liver diseases we observed that the quantitative expression of the two forms did not significantly changed among patients. Furthermore, 3p/5p ratio was different between HB and non-HB samples, being positive in the latter and negative in HB samples. Influence of concomitant treatments in the expression of miR-483 (i.e. chemotherapy, and immunosuppressive drugs) was also evaluated and no changes were found in the follow-up. In conclusion the expression and function of miR-483-3p/5p in HB still remains unclear and further studies are needed to elucidate the possible mechanisms that regulate the different strand selection between the two forms of microRNA-483 in patients affected by HB. We deem that the analysis of microRNA-483 different forms could be useful for the molecular identification of HB patients and the discrimination with non-HB patient.