MiR-21/Pten expression levels in 47 pairs of NSCLC tissues and adjacent normal specimens, and relationship with disease free survival.

<p>(A) Expression levels of miR-21 were up-regulated in 37/47 pairs of NSCLC tissues relatively to adjacent normal specimens. MiR-21 were analyzed by stem-loop qRT-PCR, and normalized to the levels of U6. Fold changes were obtained by the ratio of miR-21 abundance in cancer tissues to that in adjacent normal tissues. *<i>p</i><0.05 indicates significant difference comparing miR-21 expression in tumor tissues with adjacent normal tissues. (B) Representative Pten protein levels in NSCLC tissues (T) and adjacent normal specimens (N) assessed by immunoblot, GAPDH was used as loading control. (C) Pten Immunohistochemistry (IHC) results of NSCLC sections, 0 (negative), +(weakly positive),++(moderately positive), and+++(strongly positive). (D) Correlation analysis between Pten protein levels and miR-21 expression levels in NSCLC tissues. IHC scores were used to describe Pten protein levels in tumor tissues, evaluated by experienced pathologists in a blinded manner. (E) Linear regression curves of miR-21 expression and Pten protein levels. (F) Kaplan-Meier curves depicting Disease-free survival according to expression of miR-21. The cutoff value of the subgroups (high and low) of miR-21 expression level was the 50th percentile value.