KINETICS OF HEPATIC AND CIRCULATING MICRORNA-122 DURING EXPERIMENTAL ACUTE HCV INFECTION

POSTERSmiR-122 expression and viral load in vivo.In addition, decreased pretreatment level of miR-122 is associated with no response during IFN therapy.In the present study, the miR-122 and miR-221 expression was analysed in chronic HCV infection with and without steatosis compared to non-infected, normal liver tissues.Methods: The microRNA expression was determined in 67 biopsy (12 HCV [genotype 1/b] without steatosis, 36 HCV with steatosis, 19 steatosis) and 6 normal formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded liver samples.TaqMan MicroRNA Assays (ID: 002245 and 000524, Life Technologies) were employed for the analysis of miR-122 and miR-221 expression from isolated total RNA (modified RNeasy FFPE kit, Qiagen).Results: The expression of both microRNAs were decreased in the three sample groups when compared to normal liver tissue.In average, the least miR-122 expression was observed in HCV without steatosis followed by HCV with steatosis and steatosis, while miR-221 expression was equally decreased in HCV without steatosis and HCV with steatosis but moderately decreased in steatosis. Conclusions:The results indicate that steatosis causes a less pronounced, however not significant, decrease in miR-122 expression even when associated with HCV infection, while no increase -observed during hepatocarcinogenesis -but decrease of miR-221 expression is present in chronic hepatitis C.