To investigate the clinical significance of miR-126 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma and its relationship with clinical features and prognosis.

The expression of miR-126 in 118 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma and its respective adjacent tissue were detected by using real-time PCR .The relationship between the expression of miR-126 and the clinicopathological features and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma was analyzed by usingstatistical software SPSS 19.0. Measurement data such as expression of miR-126 were expressed as mean±standard deviation (±s), and independent t test was used for comparison between the groups. Disease-Free-Survival (DFS) were examined by using Kaplan-Merier method and Cox regression analysis. A P value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant difference.

The expression of miR-126 in liver cancer tissues was significantly lower than that of normal liver tissue, and the expression in the metastatic liver cancer tissues was significantly lower than that of the non metastatic liver cancer tissues, with significant difference (P<0.05). The expression of miR-126 in liver cancer tissues was related to TNM staging and metastasis (P<0.05), but not related to sex, age, tumor diameter, tissue type, history of hepatitis and the number of tumors (P>0.05). Cox multiple regression model analysis showed that metastasis and miR-126 expression were independent factors affecting the prognosis of patients with liver cancer, and the risk of recurrence, metastasis and death of patients with miR-126 low expression was 1.528 times higher than that of patients with miR-126 high expression (95% CI: 0.947 to 3.002, P=0.022).

The down-regulation of miR-126 is involved in the carcinogenesis and progression of HCC, and has a certain clinical value in judging the malignancy and prognosis of HCC.