Figure 1. miR-137 is frequently down-regulated in HCC and associates with poor outcome.

(A, B) miR-137 expression was significantly decreased in HCC compared to the corresponding non-tumourous (NT) livers using qRT-PCR analyses. Expression was shown as a log₂-fold change. (C) Scatter plots of the relative expression of miR-137 in patients without metastasis or with metastasis. 136 cases (venous invasion was observed in 29 patients and distant metastasis was observed in 22 patients) were subjected to qRT-PCR. Data were the mean ± SEM. (D) miR-137 expression was down-regulated in metastatic tumours (venous metastases) compared to primary HCC. Twenty-three cases were subjected to qRT-PCR. (E) miR-137 expression in 2 normal liver tissues, the immortalized liver cell line, L-02, and HCC cell lines. miR-137 expression was lower in HCC cell lines compared to normal liver (N₁). Data were the mean ± SEM. (F) Decrease in miR-137 was significantly associated with the overall survival of 136 HCC patients. The median was used as the cut-off value to divide patients into low and high expression groups. All *P<0.05, **P<0.01.