Expression of plasma mir-21 in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Oral Squamous cell carcinoma is a common malignancy worldwide. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short, non-coding RNAs that are found to be up or downregulated in Oral cancer patients and play a role in all levels of carcinogenesis. It regulates the post-transcriptional levels of targeted mRNAs. The miRNA-21 (miR-21) is upregulated in oral carcinoma status. We studied the expression of miRNA 21 in plasma of Oral squamous cell carcinoma patients.We observed the levels of miR21 in plasma of patients with OSCC (n 30) and healthy controls (n 30) by miRNA easy kit quagen. The fold change was observed and compared with OSCC and controls.Plasma miR-21 levels were increased markedly in the patients with OSCC compared to controls. The patients with moderately differentiated, Stage-IV OSCC patients showed increased fold change compared to welldifferentiated and Stage-III OSCC patients.Our results indicate that plasma miR-21 may be used as an adjuvant biomarker the detection of OSCC patient.