However, the obesity factor impacted more in the ERα<sup>+</sup>/PR<sup>+</sup> group since the ratio between OB and non-obese (NOB) patients with high expression of HIF1-α and SLUG was higher in ERα<sup>+</sup>/PR<sup>+</sup> than in the ERα<sup>-</sup>/PR<sup>-</sup> group. miR-221 levels were significantly higher in the OB than NOB patients, and, also in this case, obesity impacted more in the ERα<sup>+</sup>/PR<sup>+</sup> group.
The objective of the study was to determine whether miR-17-5p, miR-195-5p, and miR-221-3p expressions were deregulated in serum samples of obese and nonobese postmenopausal women with BC.
Our data suggest that miR-221 may contribute to the development of the insulin resistance that typically accompanies obesity, by affecting PPAR signalling pathways and by directly downregulating ADIPOR1 and ETS1.
We determined retroperitoneal adipose tissue (rWAT) expression of five miRNAs related to adipocyte differentiation (miRNA-143) and lipid metabolism (miRNA-103 and -107) and altered in obesity (miRNA-221 and -222), using the TaqMan®MicroRNA Assay (Applied-Biosystems).