Table 1. Association of miR-223-3p levels with neutrophil infiltrate and CD31 expression.
Neutrophil | P-value | MiR-223-3p staining | P-value | CD31 expression | P-value | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Low | Medium + High | Low | Medium + High | % high exp | Negative | Positive | % high exp | ||||
Control | 6 | 2 | 0.042* | 6 | 2 | 0.05* | 8 | 0 | 0.03* | ||
Early-stage T | 2 | 20 | 0.001# | 2 | 20 | 90 | 0.001# | 17 | 5 | 21 | 0.2# |
Advanced-stage T | 9 | 4 | 0.999 ± | 10 | 3 | 23 | 0.99 ± | 3 | 10 | 77 | 0.001 ± |
Statistical analysis: Fisher's exact test. *Control vs. Tumors. #Control vs. Early-stage Tumors. ± Control vs. Advanced-stage Tumors.
Quantification of neutrophil infiltrate, miR-223-3p staining and CD31 expression from a control group made of 8 healthy people, a group made of 22 HNSCC patients with early-stage (T1 or T2) tumors and a group made of 13 patients with advanced-stage (T3 and T4) tumors was performed by a trained pathologist as following. A sample was considered to display low expression if the percentage of positive cells was from 0 to 10%, median expression (med) if the percentage is between 10 to 50% and high expression if more than 50% of the cells were positive. Negative scoring for CD31 staining corresponds to less than 30% positive cells. Three random fields per tumor were analyzed. This contingency table highlights a correlation between the presence of neutrophils and the expression of miR-223-3p and an inverse correlation between the presence of miR-223-3p and the expression of CD31.