Screening and target gene mapping of differentially expressed microRNAs in the degenerative intervertebral disc of degenerative scoliosis patients / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in many diseases. To analyze the miRNA expression profile in degenerative scoliosis patients is helpful for classifying its pathogenesis. OBJECTIVE: To compare miRNAs expression profile in the intervertebral disc tissue between degenerative scoliosis patients and healthy controls, and to investigate its role in the pathogenesis of degenerative scoliosis. METHODS:Degenerative nucleus pulposus tissues from 48 patients with degenerative scoliosis (male 36, female 12; 58-69 years old) and normal nucleus pulposus tissues from 36 patients with lumbar fractures were harvested to isolate, culture and identify nucleus pulposus cels folowed by total RNA extract. Differentialy expressed miRNAs were screened by microRNA microarray analysis and validated by real-Time qPCR. Target genes of highly expressed microRNAs were predicted by analyzing information from MicroCosm v5, TargetScan 5.1 and microRNA.org databases. Biological signal pathways associated with the target genes were analyzed, and qPCR was used to validate the screening results. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Nineteen differentialy expressed miRNAs were identified. The miR-98 was highly expressed in degenerative nucleus pulposus tissue, and the fold change was 6.368. Predicted miR-98 target gene was interleukin-10, which was involved in JAK-STAT signaling pathway and located in upstream of this pathway. In degenerative nucleus pulposus cels of degenerative scoliosis patients, miR-98 was highly expressed, and the corresponding target gene was interleukin-10. These results indicate that JAK-STAT signaling pathway may play an important role in the pathogenesis of degenerative scoliosis.