MicroRNA(miRNA)广泛参与机体各项生理和病理过程，近年来受到广泛关注且研究进展迅速。肝癌尤其是乙型肝炎相关肝癌是我国的重大疾病，miRNA在肝癌发生、发展过程中发挥着重要作用，在肝癌发生、肿瘤进展、预后判断和生物治疗等方面，miRNA均能通过调控其靶基因的表达参与其中。由于大规模平行测序等miRNA组学研究的新技术进展迅速，肝脏与肝癌miRNA组的研究进一步加深了科研工作者对肝癌相关miRNA的理解。在肝脏中富集表达的miRNA在肝癌组织中均出现表达失调，这些表达失调的重要miRNA已被证明是肝癌基因治疗的潜在靶点。此外，肝癌患者血清中存在的游离miRNA被证实是肝癌诊断和个体化治疗的潜在生物标志物。笔者简要阐述肝癌相关miRNA的表达和作用机制及其在临床肝癌诊断和干预中的潜在意义与价值，并对miRNA给肝癌诊治带来新的机遇和挑战作一展望。

MicroRNAs plays critical roles in diverse physiological and pathological processes. It has attracted worldwide attention and rapid progress has been achieved in the past two decades. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), especially hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related HCC, is particularly prevalent in China. Recently, as the possible roles for microRNAs in the pathogenesis and progression of HCC is being gradually uncovered, significant advances have been made in microRNA-based diagnosis and therapy of HCC. Owing to the rapid progress of new techniques such as massive parallel signature sequencing, miRNomes of human normal liver and HCC have been revealed, then deepened our understanding of the important microRNAs in HCC development. The enriched microRNAs in the liver are reported to be deregulated during HCC development, and these microRNAs are suggested to bear considerable therapeutic potential in HCC gene therapy. Moreover, serum microRNAs in HCC patients are also determined to be biomarkers for HCC diagnosis and individual therapy. This review paper aims to summarize the recent literature on the regulation of microRNAs expression in HCC, downstream targets of microRNAs in HCC development, and outlook the potential of serum microRNAs as diagnostic/prognostic makers and therapeutic targets for HCC.

国家重点基础研究发展计划（973计划）（No. 2012CB518900）；国家自然科学基金资助项目（No.31170826、No.31370864）；国家自然科学基金优秀青年基金资助项目（No.81422037）；上海市晨光计划（No. 12CG39）资助项目。