A Preliminary microRNA Analysis of non Syndromic Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms

Abstract

The development of thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAAs) involves a multifactorial process resulting in alterations of the structure and composition of the extracellular matrix (ECM). Recently, modifications in microRNA (miRNA) expression were implicated in the pathogenesis of TAA.This study presents a preliminary miRNA microarray analysis conducted on pooled ascending aorta RNAs obtained from non familial non syndromic TAA patients (five males and five females) compared to matched control pools. Ninety-nine differentially expressed miRNAs with >1.5-fold-up- or down-regulation in TAAs compared to controls were identified, 16.0% of which were similarly regulated in the two sexes.Genes putatively targeted by differentially expressed miRNAs belonged preferentially to focal adhesion and adherens junction pathways. The results indicate an altered regulation of miRNA-mediated gene expression in the cellular interactions of aneurysmal aortic wall.

Notch1 haploinsufficiency causes ascending aortic aneurysms in mice

“…Additionally, the chord graph in Figure 6B shows the association of 18 genes with the top 8 GO terms. Interestingly, these results are similar to gene expression profiling of human TAA tissues where focal adhesion and adherens junction pathways were implicated (54,55). Accordingly, the observed differences in gene expression in the Notch1.129S6…”

MicroRNAs as possible biomarkers for screening of aortic aneurysms: a systematic review and validation study

“…On the other hand hsa-miR-133b was not detected neither in plasma or tissue samples. These miRNAs were previously identified in the majority of the studies via microarray analysis (Liao et al 2011, Pahl et al 2012, Patuzzo et al 2012, Kim et al 2014, Wang et al 2015, Zhang et al 2015 and the fact that they were mainly detected in tissue samples may suggest that the quantity of these miRNAs in plasma is significantly low and possibly they cannot be detected with the RT-PCR method. For the remaining nine, the expression was lower in BB samples than BA samples.…”

“…From these studies only two did not report the clinical characteristics of the control groups (Maegdefessel et al 2012a(Maegdefessel et al , 2012b) and in Maegdefessel et al (2014), even though the clinical characteristics were reported for control plasma samples, they were not reported for control tissue samples. In addition, cases and control groups were age and gender matched in 16 studies (Boon et al 2011, Jones et al 2011, Liao et al 2011, Kin et al 2012, Pahl et al 2012, Patuzzo et al 2012, Biros et al 2014, Ikonomidis et al 2013, Zampetaki et al 2014, Chan et al 2015, Pei et al 2015, Wang et al 2015, Zhang et al 2015, Busch et al 2016, Licholai et al 2016, Wu et al 2016. For three studies we could not determine whether the gender of cases and control groups for tissue samples match since the gender was not clearly stated for the control groups (Maegdefessel et al 2012a(Maegdefessel et al , 2012b(Maegdefessel et al , 2014.…”

“…In a study performed by Maegdefessel et al (2014) a numerical value was given for tissue samples but not for plasma samples. P-values were presented in all the studies apart from those reported by Patuzzo et al (2012) and the tissue samples from Spear et al (2015). A meta-analysis study could not be carried out as initially anticipated by our group on the 24 studies fulfilling our selection criteria as the results in the different studies were presented in various forms, (i.e.…”

“…sometimes a p-value or a fold change or expression levels) thus could not be metaanalysed using classical methods. Furthermore, validation analysis was performed in the majority of the cases, excluding two (Patuzzo et al 2012, Wang et al 2015. The studies were scored positively if a validation step was included either after a discovery phase or with previously sited miRNAs.…”