Deregulation of Serum MicroRNA Expression Is Associated with Cigarette Smoking and Lung Cancer

Figure 4

Serum levels of miRNAs let-7i-3p and miR-154-5p in nonsmoker controls (C), smokers (S), and lung-cancer patients (T). Box plots of the levels of let-7i-3p (a) and miR-154-5p (b) in the sera of nonsmoker controls (), smokers (), and lung-cancer patients (). The expression levels of let-7i-3p (c) and miR-154-5p (d) in lung-cancer patients with squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma (AC). The expression levels of let-7i-3p (e) and miR-154-5p (f) in the smoking lung-cancer group (TS) and the nonsmoking lung-cancer group (TN). The expression levels of the miRNAs are relative to the average values of the controls and are normalized to miR-16. Statistically significant differences were analyzed with the Kruskal-Wallis test. The upper and lower limits of the boxes and the lines across the boxes indicate the 75th and 25th percentiles and the median, respectively.

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