miR-124 inhibits progression of hepatocarcinoma by targeting KLF4 and promises a novel diagnostic marker

Figures & data

Table 1. Patient characteristics.

	Number of patients (%)
Total patients	112
Gender
Male	87
Female	25
Age
≤50	60
>50	52
HBsAg
Positive	26
Negative	86
Liver cirrhosis
Presence	12
Absence	100
AFP (μg/l)
Positive >20	35
Negative <20	77
Tumour size (cm)
<5	55
>5	57
Vascular invasion
Yes	32
No	80
Tumour encapsulation
Complete	54
Incomplete	58
Differentiation
I–II	96
III–IV	16
TNM stage
I	47
II	48
III	17

Figure 1. (A) Relative expression of miR-124 in tumour tissues and normal adjacent tissues of 112 HCC patients. (B) Overall survival rate of high miR-124 expression patients and low miR-124 expression patients. Kaplan–Meier analysis was used for the statistical assessment.

Table 2. The relationship between clinicopathological characteristics and overall survival of patients.

Clinicopathological characteristics	Univariate analysis	p	Multivariate analysis	p
Gender (female/male)	1.07 (0.85–1.39)	.423	–	–
Age (≤50/>50)	1.31 (1.12–1.56)	.003	1.23 (1.05–1.45)	.006
HbsAg (negative/positive)	1.23 (1.09–1.50)	.008	–	–
Liver cirrhosis (absence/presence)	1.14 (0.92–1.34)	.258	–	–
AFP (μg/l) (<20/>20)	1.21 (1.08–1.43)	.038	–	–
Tumour size (cm) (<5/>5)	1.52 (1.23–1.87)	<.001	1.48 (1.20–1.81)	.002
Vascular invasion (N/Y)	–	–	–	–
Tumour encapsulation (complete/incomplete)	1.25 (1.08–1.53)	.007	–	–
Differentiation (III–IV/I–II)	1.88 (1.34–2.45)	.002	2.45 (2.12–2.97)	<.001
TNM stage (I/II/III)	2.0 (1.54–2.68)	<.001	3.16 (2.76–3.89)	<.001
miR-124 expression (high/low)	1.92 (1.67–2.43)	<.001	2.21 (1.76–2.68)	.002

Figure 3. (A) Western blot and quantization of KLF4, RAB11FIP4 and RAF1 in SMMC-7221 transfected with miR-124 mimics. (B) Luciferase assay was used to confirm the targetability of KLF4 3′ UTR and miR-124. Wild type represent bona fide sequence of KLF4 3′ UTR; Mutant represents a sequence mimicking the KLF4 3′ UTR, but introduced with four single nucleotide variant.

Figure 4. (A) Scatter plot of KLF4 mRNA level and CD44 mRNA level in Hep3B and SMMC-7221. The straight line indicates correlation, and R represents correlation coefficiency. (B) Sphere formation assay of Hep3B transfected with/without KLF4 and/or miR-124 (scramble sequence as control).