MicroRNA Expression In Peripheral Blood Of Systemic Sclerosis Preliminary Research Spectrum

BackgroudSystemic sclerosis is a complex autoimmune disease which is characterized by excessive and widespread fibrosis in the skin and internal organs. Vascular alterations, fibrosis and autoantibodies against various cellular antigens are among the principal features of SSc. MicroRNAs(miRNAs) are small, single-stranded noncoding RNAs, which is demonstrated to suppress the expression of specific genes at the translation level by complementary binding to the3’noncoding region of the target mRNA. MiRNAs participate in many vital processes, including cell proliferation, cell differentiation and apoptosis. Although the dysregulation of miRNAs is known to be involved in a variety of pathophysiologic processes, the role of miRNAs in SSc is unclear. In this study, we investigated the specific miRNA expression pattern in PBMC of patients with SSc, and identified several miRNAs associated with SSc.ObjectiveThis study was undertaken to explore miRNA expression profile in PBMC of patients with SSc, and to identify the miRNAs associated with the pathogenesis of SSc, as well as their correlation with clinical features.MethodsPBMC isolated from4patients with SSc and4healthy controls was used for miRNA microarray analysis to detect differentially expressed miRNAs between the two groups. We identified three miRNAs correlated with SSc by bioinformatics analysis.The expression of miR-29a、miR-125b and miR-140in patients with SSc or PM/DM and healthy controls were measured by a quantitative real-time PCR assay. The correlation between the expression of miRNAs and the clinical or laboratory features has been investigated.ResultsWe performed a miRNA profiling analysis to4SSc patients and4healthy controls, and selected out47differentially expressed miRNAs with29up-regulated and18down-regulated in SSc. Real-time PCR confirmed the expression level of miR-29a and miR-125b in patients with SSc were significantly lower than those in healthy controls.There was no difference between patients with SSc and healthy controls in the expression of miR-140. Further analysis showed that PASP and hsCRP was inversely correlated with the expression level of miR-125b. No other correlation with clinical or laboratory features was discovered.ConclusionOur findings revealed a significant different expression of microRNAs in PBMC between patients with SSc and healthy controls.The expression level of miR-29a and miR-125b in patients with SSc were significantly lower than those in healthy controls, and closely correlated with clinical or laboratory features of SSc.Therefore miRNA may play an important role in the pathogenesis of SSc.