Circulating MicroRNAs as Novel Biomarkers of Stenosis Progression in Asymptomatic Carotid Stenosis.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Progression of asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis (ACAS) in patients with >50% luminal narrowing is considered a potential risk factor for ischemic stroke; however, subclinical molecular biomarkers of ACAS progression are lacking. Recent studies suggest a regulatory function for several microRNAs (miRNAs) on the evolution of carotid plaque, but its role in ACAS progression is mostly unknown. The aim of our study was to investigate a wide miRNA panel in peripheral blood exosomes from patients with ACAS to associate circulating miRNA expression profiles with stenosis progression. METHODS: The study included 60 patients with ACAS carrying >50% luminal narrowing. First, miRNA expression profiles of circulating exosomes were determined by Affymetrix microarrays from plasma samples of 16 patients from the cohort. Second, those miRNAs among the most differentially expressed in patients with ACAS progression were quantified by real-time polymerase chain reaction in a separate replication cohort of 39 subjects within the patient sample. RESULTS: Our results showed that ACAS progression was associated with development of stroke. MiR-199b-3p, miR-27b-3p, miR-130a-3p, miR-221-3p, and miR-24-3p presented significant higher expression in those patients with ACAS progression. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, our study supports that specific circulating miRNA expression profiles could provide a new tool that complements the monitoring of ACAS progression, improving therapeutic approaches to prevent ischemic stroke.

El discurso médico, piedra angular de la construcción de las relaciones de género en la época contemporánea / Medical discourse, cornerstone of gender relations in contemporary times

El concepto de género no establece sólo una distinción entre sexo biológico (dato natural y objeto de conocimiento de la biología y de la medicina) y sexo social (construido dentro de y por relaciones de poder). Como categoría de análisis permite también indagar en el espacio de tensión que gobierna la construcción mutua de uno y de otro. Esa construcción pasa sin lugar a duda por el lenguaje y su capacidad de enraizar en la cultura categorías de pensamiento. Este trabajo pretende poner de manifiesto cómo la categoría lingüística y conceptual de la-mujer es uno de los lugares donde en el siglo XIX se encarna esa construcción mutua

The concept of gender establishes not only a distinction between biological sex (natural data and the object of biological and medical knowledge) and social sex (constructed within and by power relations). As a category of analysis, it also allows us to research the area of tension which governs the mutual construction of both. This construction inevitably pervades language and its capacity to establish categories of thought in cultures. This paper will demonstrate how the conceptual and linguistic category of «Woman» is one of the areas where this mutual construction may be found in the 19th century