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. 2019 Sep 3;9:12718. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-49155-4

Figure 1.

Figure 1

MicroRNA-138 is a potential diagnostic biomarker for triple-negative breast cancer: (A) miR-138 expression data sourced from the TCGA database, represented as box plots in breast cancer subtypes along with normal tissue samples. Note that TNBC shows highest mean expression of miR-138. (B) In situ hybridization with LNA probes specific for mature miR-138 on patient tissue sections from tissue array (upper panel) [normal (n = 6), luminal (n = 51), HER2 (n = 33) and TNBC (n = 54). miR-138 is stained in red and nuclei are stained blue. Scale bar, 50 µm. Hematoxylin & Eosin staining for the same (lower panel) Scale bar - 100 µm. (C) Bar graph represents quantification of miR-138 expression in tissue samples from indicated groups. Note that a substantial proportion (84%) of TNBC sections express high levels of miR-138 compared to other subtypes or normal tissue sections. (D) Bar graph representing transcript abundance of mature miR-138 in indicated breast cancer cell lines. Note that TNBC cell lines express elevated levels of miR-138 compared to HR + ve cell lines. Error bars represent the standard deviation. (E) Expression of miR-138 detected by in situ hybridization in TNBC (upper panel) or HR + ve cell lines (lower panel). miR-138 is stained in red and nuclei are stained blue. Scale bar, 20 µm. (F) Kaplan-Meier survival curves with statistical significance by log-rank test of two groups representing TNBC subtype (n = 95). Elevated expression of miR-138 correlates with increased mortality.