Ssue that was analyzed. Differences in the immunohistochemical expression of these markers may also exist across different tumor regions. Such intratumoral heterogeneity in immunohistochemical expression was evident in a study of xenograft hepatomas, where HK2 expression was noted to differ between the tumor center and periphery [32]. Because of the limited sampling involved, the current study may underestimate the overall magnitude of CKA and HK2 expression in HCC tumors. Another potential limitation to this study is that the data available from cancer registries is not comprehensive from a clinical standpoint. A number of clinically important variables, such as serologic markers of liver disease severity and viral hepatitis status, could not be examined since this data was not routinely abstracted by the cancer registries. Moreover, 
informaHexokinase and Choline Kinase in Liver Cancertion on tumor recurrence and subsequent treatment was not available for analysis.choline metabolism are involved in the biologic progression of HCC into more aggressive and lethal cancer phenotypes.ConclusionsImmunohistochemical expression of HK2 and CKA in tumors was associated with poor survival in HCC. These prognostic effects could be seen even in analyses limited to early stage (I and II) cases. Such associations support speculation that glycolysis andAuthor ContributionsConceived and designed the experiments: SK BH OC LW. Performed the experiments: SK BH OC. Analyzed the data: SK BH OC LW. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SK BH LW. Wrote the paper: SK BH OC LW.
A Facile and Specific Assay for Quantifying MicroRNA by an Optimized RT-qPCR ApproachQian Mei1, Xiang Li1, Yuanguang Meng2, Zhiqiang Wu1, Mingzhou Guo3, Yali Zhao1, Xiaobing Fu1*, Weidong Han1*1 Department of Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medicine, School of Life Sciences, AZ-876 Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, 2 Department of Gynecologic Oncology, Institute of Basic Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, 3 Department of Cancer Epigenetics, Institute of Basic Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaAbstractBackground: The spatiotemporal expression patterns of microRNAs (miRNAs) are important to the verification of their predicted function. RT-qPCR is the accepted technique for the quantification of miRNA expression; however, stem-loop RTPCR and poly(T)-adapter 
assay, the two most frequently used methods, are not very convenient in practice and have poor 223488-57-1 specificity, respectively. Results: We have developed an optimal approach that integrates these two methods and allows specific and rapid detection of tiny amounts of sample RNA and reduces costs relative to other techniques. miRNAs of the same sample are polyuridylated and reverse transcribed into cDNAs using a universal poly(A)-stem-loop RT primer and then used as templates for SYBRH Green real-time PCR. The technique has a dynamic range of eight orders of magnitude with a sensitivity of up to 0.2 fM miRNA or as little as 10 pg of total RNA. Virtually no cross-reaction is observed among the closely-related miRNA family members and with miRNAs that have only a single nucleotide difference in this highly specific assay. The spatial constraint of the stem-loop structure of the modified RT primer allowed detection of miRNAs directly from cell lysates without laborious total RN.Ssue that was analyzed. Differences in the immunohistochemical expression of these markers may also exist across different tumor regions. Such intratumoral heterogeneity in immunohistochemical expression was evident in a study of xenograft hepatomas, where HK2 expression was noted to differ between the tumor center and periphery [32]. Because of the limited sampling involved, the current study may underestimate the overall magnitude of CKA and HK2 expression in HCC tumors. Another potential limitation to this study is that the data available from cancer registries is not comprehensive from a clinical standpoint. A number of clinically important variables, such as serologic markers of liver disease severity and viral hepatitis status, could not be examined since this data was not routinely abstracted by the cancer registries. Moreover, informaHexokinase and Choline Kinase in Liver Cancertion on tumor recurrence and subsequent treatment was not available for analysis.choline metabolism are involved in the biologic progression of HCC into more aggressive and lethal cancer phenotypes.ConclusionsImmunohistochemical expression of HK2 and CKA in tumors was associated with poor survival in HCC. These prognostic effects could be seen even in analyses limited to early stage (I and II) cases. Such associations support speculation that glycolysis andAuthor ContributionsConceived and designed the experiments: SK BH OC LW. Performed the experiments: SK BH OC. Analyzed the data: SK BH OC LW. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SK BH LW. Wrote the paper: SK BH OC LW.
A Facile and Specific Assay for Quantifying MicroRNA by an Optimized RT-qPCR ApproachQian Mei1, Xiang Li1, Yuanguang Meng2, Zhiqiang Wu1, Mingzhou Guo3, Yali Zhao1, Xiaobing Fu1*, Weidong Han1*1 Department of Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, 2 Department of Gynecologic Oncology, Institute of Basic Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, 3 Department of Cancer Epigenetics, Institute of Basic Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaAbstractBackground: The spatiotemporal expression patterns of microRNAs (miRNAs) are important to the verification of their predicted function. RT-qPCR is the accepted technique for the quantification of miRNA expression; however, stem-loop RTPCR and poly(T)-adapter assay, the two most frequently used methods, are not very convenient in practice and have poor specificity, respectively. Results: We have developed an optimal approach that integrates these two methods and allows specific and rapid detection of tiny amounts of sample RNA and reduces costs relative to other techniques. miRNAs of the same sample are polyuridylated and reverse transcribed into cDNAs using a universal poly(A)-stem-loop RT primer and then used as templates for SYBRH Green real-time PCR. The technique has a dynamic range of eight orders of magnitude with a sensitivity of up to 0.2 fM miRNA or as little as 10 pg of total RNA. Virtually no cross-reaction is observed among the closely-related miRNA family members and with miRNAs that have only a single nucleotide difference in this highly specific assay. The spatial constraint of the stem-loop structure of the modified RT primer allowed detection of miRNAs directly from cell lysates without laborious total RN.