Stability analysis of liver cancer-related microRNAs

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding, single-stranded RNAs of approximately 22 nt and constitute a novel class of gene regulators that are found in both plants and animals. Several studies have demonstrated that serum miRNAs could serve as potential biomarkers for the detection of various cancers and other diseases. A few documents regarding the stability of liver cancer-related miRNAs in serum are available. A systemic analysis of the stability of miRNA in serum is quite necessary. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the stability of miRNAs from three different sources, cultured liver cancer Huh-7 cell line, clinical liver cancer, and serum under different experimental conditions, including different temperature, time duration, pH values, RNase A digestion, DNase I digestion, and various freeze-thaw cycles. The qRT-PCR analysis demonstrated that liver cancer-related miRNAs were detectable under each of test conditions, indicating that miRNAs were extremely stable and resistant to destruction and degradation under harsh environmental conditions. However, ribosomal RNA was fragile and easily degraded by demonstrating sharp decrease of relative expression under the non-physiological test conditions. We also established a robust procedure for serum RNA extraction, which is greatly important not only for the miRNA profiling studies but also for the disease prognosis based on abnormal miRNA expression.