miRNA-337-3p and Matrix Metalloproteinase-9: Expression Patterns in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Prognostic Value for Cervical Lymph Node Metastasis.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the expression of matrix metalloproteinase 9 and miRNA-337-3p in oral squamous cell carcinoma tissues and analyse their clinical significance.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Postoperative specimens from 30 oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients were collected from June 2022 to January 2023, and real-time fluorescence quantitative reverse transcription PCR was used to detect the expression levels of miR-337-3p in cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues. The correlation between the expression levels of the two and the clinicopathological parameters of patients was analysed.

RESULTS

Compared with adjacent normal tissues, the expression of miRNA-337-3p in OSCC tissues was significantly lower (p < 0.05), and its expression level was clearly related to the lymph node metastasis status of OSCC patients (p < 0.05). The positive rates of MMP-9 in OSCC tissue and adjacent normal tissue were 83.33% and 36.67% respectively. Compared with patients in the N0 stage, the expression level of miRNA-337-3p in OSCC tissues of patients in the N1 + N2 stage was significantly reduced (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The expression of MMP-9 and miRNA-337-3p in OSCC tissues is related to cervical lymph node metastasis. miRNA-337-3p plays a tumour suppressor role in OSCC and may inhibit OSCC cell invasion and metastasis.