Current understanding of the functional roles of aberrantly expressed microRNAs in esophageal cancer

Table 1 MiRNAs and their targets in esophageal cancer

miRNA	Expression profile	ESCC	EAC	Related biological function	Ref.
miRNA-21	↑	PTEN		Cell proliferation	[8,17,18]
		PDCD4		Cell migration, apoptosis	[9]
Let-7	↓	HMGA2		Cell proliferation	[25,26]
		IL-6		Cytokine activity	[27]
miRNA-143 and -145	↓	FSCN	FSCN	Cell migration	[29,32]
		ERK5		Cell proliferation, cell migration	[30]
miRNA-196a	↑		Annexin A1	Apoptosis	[38,39]
			SPRR2C	Pseudogene	[38]
			S100A9	Cell differentiation, cell proliferation	[38]
			KRT5	Cell architecture	[38]
		RAP1A		Cell proliferation, cell adhesion and cell migration	[41]

miRNAs with corresponding expression profile (↑ = upregulated, ↓ = downregulated in esophageal cancer), described targets and related biological function in esophageal squamous cells carcinoma (ESCC) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC).