title: Identification of rat lung-specific microRNAs by micoRNA microarray: valuable discoveries for the facilitation of lung research.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  An important mechanism for gene regulation utilizes small non-coding RNAs called microRNAs (miRNAs). These small RNAs play important roles in tissue development, cell differentiation and proliferation, lipid and fat metabolism, stem cells, exocytosis, diseases and cancers. To date, relatively little is known about functions of miRNAs in the lung except lung cancer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, we utilized a rat miRNA microarray containing 216 miRNA probes, printed in-house, to detect the expression of miRNAs in the rat lung compared to the rat heart, brain, liver, kidney and spleen. Statistical analysis using Significant Analysis of Microarray (SAM) and Tukey Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) revealed 2 miRNAs (miR-195 and miR-200c) expressed specifically in the lung and 9 miRNAs co-expressed in the lung and another organ. 12 selected miRNAs were verified by Northern blot analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The identified lung-specific miRNAs from this work will facilitate functional studies of miRNAs during normal physiological and pathophysiological processes of the lung.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA. yang.wang@okstate.edu <yang.wang@okstate.edu>
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tingting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.forename: Deming
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gou
authors.forename: Zhongming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Narendranath Reddy
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Chintagari
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000502:physiology*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D012333:RNA, Messenger