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miRNA-34a underexpressed in Merkel cell polyomavirus-negative Merkel cell carcinoma

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Abstract

Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCV) is frequently detectable in Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) tumors, but the significance of MCV infection is not yet totally understood. Thus far, no key regulatory miRNA has been identified for MCC tumorigenesis. However, distinct miRNA expression profiles have been suggested for MCV-positive and MCV-negative tumors. We used microarray hybridization to identify miRNA expression differences in MCC tumor samples according to MCV status and further validated these results by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). When compared with MCV-negative tumors, we detected overexpression of miR-34a, miR-30a, miR-142-3p, and miR-1539 in those MCV positives. In addition, slight underexpression was detectable in MCV-positive tumors of miR-181d. We confirmed the distinct expression of miRNAs in MCV-positive and MCV-negative tumors and confirmed statistically significant underexpression of miR-34a in MCV-negative tumors by both array analysis and qRT-PCR. Neither tumor location nor development of metastases affected miRNA expression.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, University of Helsinki and HUSLAB, P.O. Box 21, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Tuukka Veija, Helka Sahi & Tom Bohling

  2. Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Helsinki Hospital, Helsinki, Finland

    Virve Koljonen

  3. Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Virve Koljonen

  4. Department of Pathology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Sakari Knuutila & Neda Mosakhani

Authors
  1. Tuukka Veija
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  2. Helka Sahi
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  3. Virve Koljonen
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  4. Tom Bohling
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  5. Sakari Knuutila
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  6. Neda Mosakhani
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Correspondence to Tuukka Veija.

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Tuukka Veija and Helka Sahi contributed equally to this work.

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Veija, T., Sahi, H., Koljonen, V. et al. miRNA-34a underexpressed in Merkel cell polyomavirus-negative Merkel cell carcinoma. Virchows Arch 466, 289–295 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-014-1700-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-014-1700-9

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