Deregulated miRNAs in adrenocortical tumors

We performed miRNA expression profiling in a series of adrenocortical carcinomas, adrenocortical adenomas and normal adreno cortex using a microarray approach. Significant differentially expressed miRNAs among groups were identified using SAM analysis. Agilent microarray platform containing 903 miRNAs was used to determine miRNA expression profiles in 4 normal cortices, 26 adenomas and 22 adrenocortical carcinomas. SAM analysis was adopted to identify significant differentially expressed miRNAs between groups. SAM survival analysis was used to determine the association between miRNA expression and survival among carcinoma cases. The expression levels of candidate prognostic miRNAs were evaluated using qRT-PCR in the same cohort of adrenocortical carcinomas and association with survival was evaluated using Kaplan Meier curves and log rank tests.