Abstract: Objective The purpose of this study is to study the expression of miR-221 in cervical cancer tissues and its relationship with HPV infection. Methods HR-HPV infection was detected by HC2, and 30 cases of HR-HPV negative and 5 cases of HR-HPV positive cervical cancer tissues were collected. Meanwhile, 30 cases of normal cervical tissues in patients with benign disease were collected as control group. The expression of miR-221 was detected by RT-PCR, preliminarily investigating the relationship between miR-221 expression and the occurrence of cervical cancer and HPV infection. Through transfection of miR-221 and anti-miR-221 into HPV16-positive cervical carcinoma cell line Caski and HPV16-negative cervical carcinoma cell line C33a, we observed the role of miR-221 on the migration and invasion of Caski cells and C33a cells. Results Compared with normal cervical tissues, the expression of miR-221 in cervical cancer was significantly increased, the difference was statistically significant (P<0.01); and the expression of miR-221 is closely correlative to patients with or without lymph node metastasis, pathological grade and clinical stage (P<0.01); the expression of miR-221 in HR-HPV positive cervical cancer tissues was higher than in HR-HPV negative cervical cancer tissues (P<0.01); transfection of miR-221 and anti-miR-221 could promote or downregulate C33a and Caski cells migration and invasion, and the changes between two groups had statistical significance (P<0.05). Conclusion The increased expression of miR-221 in cervical cancer tissues is closely related to the occurrence and development of cervical cancer and HPV infection.

Key words: Cervical carcinoma, miR-221, HPV infection