Aberrant expression of circulating microRNAs in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus / 中华风湿病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate a panel of differentially expressed circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) as potential biomarkers in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).Methods A miRNA array was performed on plasma of 10 healthy controls and 10 SLE patients.To confirm the results of microarray,the selected 7 miRNAs were examined by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR).Independent sample's t-test was used for statistical analysis between the two groups.Results A total of 51 circulating miRNAs were signi-ficandy differentially expressed between SLE patients and healthy controls (19 up-regulated miRNAs and 32 down-regulated miRNAs).The findings of RT-qPCR on 7 miRNAs (miR-126,miR-21,miR-223 and miR-451 of upregulation and miR-125a-3p,miR-146a and miR-155 of down-regulation) were consistent with the data obtained from the array.Conclusion There is aspecific circulating miRNAs expression profile in SLE,and these aberrantly expressed miRNAs might have great potential to serve as novel,noninvasive biomarkers of SLE.