Figure 6.

miR-29a overexpression correlates with poor clinical outcomes and TET–SOCS1–MMP9 axis silencing in HCC patients. (a) Relative expressions of miR-29a and SOCS1 among HCC and adjacent non-tumor tissues. Data are shown as mean±S.D. (n=3). (b) Kaplan–Meier curve showed that patients with high TET1 or, TET3 levels had longer OS, whereas those with high miR-29a level had shorter OS. (c) The correlation between miR-29a and TET-family expressions was analyzed. (d) Correlation analysis of each TET family with SOCS1 was analyzed. (e) Proposed model for miR-29a’s role in proliferation and metastasis promotion through epigenetic SOCS1 inactivation via direct TET-family targeting. miR-29a decreases 5-hmC level by negatively regulating TET-family member expression, resulting in epigenetic SOCS1 inactivation due to reduced 5-hmC levels. Ultimately, SOCS1 dysfunction triggers activation STAT3 signaling, which leads to MMP9 expression upregulation and increased tumor invasiveness and metastasis