Objective To investigate the expression of microRNA-152 in hepatocellular carcinoma, and analyze the correlation of miR-152 expression with the clinicopathological characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) patients. Methods Real-time PCR was used to detect the expression of miR-152 in tissue specimens from HCC and the adjacent non-cancerous hepatic tissues collected from 56 patients who underwent surgical treatment for primary HCC. The association between the expression of miR-152 and the clinical pathological characteristics and prognosis of HCC patients was analyzed. Results The relative expression of miR-152 in hepatocellular carcinoma and corresponding adjacent non-carcinoma tissues were 0.616±0.041 and 0.768±0.042 (P=0.011). The expression of miR-152 was significantly associated with TNM stages (P=0.042), tumor differentiation (P=0.035), metastasis (P=0.048) and venous invasion (P=0.042). There was no significant association between the miR-152 expression and gender, age, AFP level, tumor number or tumor grade. The OS (P=0.035) and PFS (P=0.012) in the low miR-152 expression group were obviously shorter than those in the high miR-152 expression group. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the low expression of miR-152, tumor recurrence and pathological classification were significant independent prognostic factors for the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma patients. Conclusion The expression of miR-152 is decreased in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues, and the low expression of miR-152 is significantly associated with TNM stages, tumor differentiation, metastasis, venous invasion and the prognosis of HCC patients.

Objective To establish a reference intervals(RIs)of serum squamous cell carcinoma antigen(SCC-Ag)in healthy population in Nanning region and provide clinical evidence to support diagnosis and prognosis of squamous cell carcinoma.Methods A total of 10 197 reference individuals who joined a routine physical examina-tion in the Health Management Center of Guangxi International Zhuang Medical Hospital from March 2019 to De-cember 2021 were collected.The level of serum SCC-Ag was detected by chemiluminescence microparticle immuno-assay.The Mann-Whitney U test was applied to compare the differences in serum SCC level between genders or ad-jacent age groups.The unilateral 95th percentile determined the upper limit of the RIs by the nonparametric method.Another 1 035 healthy subjects with the same conditions as the reference population were selected for refer-ence validation.Results The serum SCC-Ag level showed a skewed distribution(Z＝0.08,P＜0.05).The ser-um SCC-Ag level of males was considerably higher than that of females.There was significant difference in serum SCC-Ag level between males aged 18－30 and 31－40,51－60 and 61－90(P＜0.05).There was significant difference in serum SCC-Ag level between females aged 18－30 and 31－40,31－40 and 41－50,51－60 and 61－ 90(P＜0.05).The reference intervals of serum SCC-Ag was as follows:0－1.64 ng/mL for males and females aged 18－30 years;0－1.57 ng/mL and 0－1.70 ng/mL for males aged 31－60 years and 61－90 years,respec-tively;0－1.50 ng/mL,0－1.52 ng/mL and 0－1.42 ng/mL for females aged 31－40 years,41－60 years and 61－90 years,respectively.Conclusions The RIs of serum SCC-Ag in healthy population in the Nanning region are successfully established according to different genders and ages.