Circulating let-7 levels in plasma correlate with hepatic fibrosis progression in chronic hepatitis C

Circulating microRNAs show great promise as novel noninvasive markers for the state of disease progression in chronic hepatitis C (CHC). We performed circulating miRNA expression analysis to identify circulating miRNAs associated with disease progression in the natural course of chronic HCV infection using a prospectively followed and well-characterized HCV-infected blood donor cohort. We analyzed miRNA expression patterns of human mature miRNAs in plasma in 48 subjects including 16 healthy controls, 16 CHC patients with mild fibrosis: Ishak fibrosis score 0, and 16 with significant fibrosis: Ishak fibrosis score 3-6 using Affymetrix GeneChip miRNA 4.0 Array (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA).