• Yi-Min Zhu, Zheng-Xiang Zhong, and Zhi-Ming Liu.
• Department of General Surgery, The Second Hospital of Jiaxing, Jiaxing 314000, Zhejiang Province, China.
• World J. Gastroenterol. 2010 Jul 14; 16 (26): 3325-9.

AimTo investigate let-7a expression and analyze the correlation between let-7a and progression of gastric mucosa cancerization.MethodsThe tissue microarray was constructed previously in 52 cases of human gastric carcinoma, 17 cases of chronic atrophic gastritis (atypical hyperplasia) and 11 cases of normal gastric tissue, and tissue microarrays combined with in situ hybridization were used to detect the expression of let-7a.ResultsThe positive rates of let-7a in normal gastric tissue, chronic atrophic gastritis and gastric carcinoma were 90.9%, 88.2% and 86.5%, respectively, without significant differences among the groups (P > 0.05). However, an intense signal of let-7a was observed in gastric epithelial cells, whereas a less intense signal was found in gastric atypical hyperplasia epithelial cells and a weak signal in gastric carcinoma epithelial cells. The expression of let-7a decreased along with the progression of gastric mucosa cancerization (P < 0.05). In the group of gastric carcinoma, the expression of let-7a was even significantly lower in gastric carcinomas with lymph node metastasis than in those without metastasis (P < 0.05).ConclusionGastric carcinoma has relatively lower expression of let-7a. Reduced let-7a may be a fundamental factor in the formation and lymph node metastasis of gastric carcinoma.

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