Identification of five exosomal miRNAs related to peritoneal dissemination.

<p>Schematic representation of the step-wise approach to screening miRNAs related to peritoneal dissemination. Step 1: selection of miRNAs differentially expressed (fold-change, >2) in culture medium (CM) of the highly metastatic peritoneal cell line OCUM-2MD3 (OCUM-2M parental cell line was used as control). Step 2: six peritoneal lavage fluid (PLF) samples were divided into T4 (n = 4) and T1–T3 groups according to gastrointestinal cancer stage; miRNAs differentially expressed (fold-change, >2) in the T4 group were selected. Step 3: the selected miRNA species common for Steps 1 and 2 and expressed in malignant ascites (MA) with signal intensity > log₂ 10 in MA and PLF were considered as candidate miRNAs related to peritoneal metastases.