Abstract: Objective To analyze the expression levels of microRNA(miR) -138 and miR-145 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and their relationship with type 1 helper T cell(Th1) / type 2 helper T cell(Th2) drift and prognosis.Methods 112 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma treated in our hospital from May 2015 to may 2018 were selected as esophageal squamous cell carcinoma group.The expression levels of miR-138 and miR-145 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissues and adjacent tissues were detected by realtime fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction(qRT-PCR).70 healthy people in the same period were used as the control group,serum Th1 cytokines γ Interferon(IFN)γ,Levels of interleukin(IL)-2 and Th2 cytokines IL-4 and IL-10 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma group and control group were detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA).The relationship between the expression levels of miR-138 and miR-145 and clinicopathological parameters was analyzed.The correlation between miR-138,miR-145 and Th1 and Th2 cytokines in cancer tissues were analysised by pearson correlation.To analyze the expression of miR-138 and miR-145 in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Results The expression of miR-138 and miR-145 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissues were 1.155±0.232 and 1.110±0.217,respectively,and in paracancerous tissues were 4.155±0.732 and 3.910±0.617,respectively.The expression of miR-138 and miR-145 was significantly lower than that in adjacent tissues(P＜0.05).There were significant differences in the expression levels of miR-138 and miR-145 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissues of different tumor stages(P＜0.05).The expression of miR-138 and miR-145 in cancer tissues were positively correlated with IFN-γ and IL-2(r=0.451、0.543；0.520、0.401，P＜0.05),and IL-4,IL-10 were negatively correlated(r=-0.391,-0.510;-0.402,0.553,P＜0.05).The 3 year overall survival(OS) rate of patients with high expression of miR-138 was 58.49%(31/53),which was significantly higher than that of patients with low expression of 17.24%(10/58)(P＜0.05);the 3 year OS of patients with high miR-145 expression was 52.73%(29/55),which was significantly higher than 21.43%(12/56) of patients with low expression(P＜0.05).Conclusion The expression levels of miR-138 and miR-145 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma are decreased,which is related to the poor prognosis of patients.MiR-138 and miR-145 may promote the malignant progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by affecting Th1 / Th2 drift.

Key words: esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, microRNA-138；microRNA-145；Th1/Th2；prognosis