Figure 2

The expression levels of four miRNAs by real-time RT-PCR were correlated with histology (a), cytology (b) and HPV genotype (c) in the real-time RT-PCR cohort. The expression level was corrected against the mean value of the expression level in the normal group (a), NILM (b) and negative group (c). The median value in each group is depicted in the graph. The corrected value of the expression level is indicated on the y-axis and the histology (a), cytology (b) and the HPV status (c) are indicated on the x-axis. (a) CIN: cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, SCC: squamous cell carcinoma, AD: adenocarcinoma. The value of these miRNAs significantly increased with the severity of the disease, such as normal, CIN1, 2, 3, and SCC as determined by the Jonckheere–Terpstra trend test. There was a significant difference between normal and CIN2+ as determined by the Kruskal–Wallis test and the Mann–Whitney U test with a Bonferroni correction for all four miRNAs. ^*P < 0.05 vs normal, ^†P < 0.05 vs CIN1, ^‡P < 0.05 vs CIN2, ^¶P < 0.05 vs CIN3. (b) NILM: negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy; LSIL: low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion; HSIL: high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion; ASC-US: atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance; ASC-H: atypical squamous cells, cannot exclude high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion; AGC: atypical glandular cells; SCC: squamous cell carcinoma; AD: adenocarcinoma; NILM: negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy. The value of these miRNAs significantly increased with the severity of the category through NILM, LSIL, HSIL, and SCC as determined by the Jonckheere–Terpstra trend test. There was a significant difference between NILM and HSIL/SCC as determined by the Kruskal–Wallis test and the Mann–Whitney U test with a Bonferroni correction for all four miRNAs. ^*P < 0.001 vs NILM, ^†P < 0.001 vs LSIL, ^‡P < 0.001 vs HSIL. (c) 1: HPV negative; 2: HPV positive; 3: HPV16/18-positive; 4: seven HPVs (HPV16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58); 5: thirteen HPVs (HPV16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59 and 68). ^*P < 0.01 vs negative.