Identification of rat lung-specific microRNAs by micoRNA microarray: valuable discoveries for the facilitation of lung research.
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.
Wang
Yang
Y
Department of Physiological Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA. yang.wang@okstate.edu <yang.wang@okstate.edu>
Weng
Tingting
T
Gou
Deming
D
Chen
Zhongming
Z
Chintagari
Narendranath Reddy
NR
Liu
Lin
L
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
D035683:MicroRNAs; D012333:RNA, Messenger