MicroRNA profile differences in Hepatitis B virus (HBV) positive and negative hepatocellular carcinoma

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) exhibit essential regulatory functions related to cell growth, apoptosis, development and differentiation. Dysregulated expression of miRNAs is associated with a wide variety of human diseases. As such miRNA signatures are valuable as biomarkers for disease and for making treatment decisions. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here we screened for miRNAs in chronic HBV associated HCC. To evaluate the effect of HBV infection on the change in expression of miRNAs, 12 pairs of samples from HCC and non-tumor tissues (including 6 HBV-positive HCC and 6 HBV-negative HCC and their non-tumor tissues) were collected. The extracted RNAs were evaluated to detect the expression of miRNAs. Using ANOVA to screen the differential expression of miRNAs at P-value ≤ 0.01, fold change ≥ 2 or ≤ 0.5, 225 miRNAs were detected.