title: A microRNA profile comparison between thoracic aortic dissection and normal thoracic aorta indicates the potential role of microRNAs in contributing to thoracic aortic dissection pathogenesis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our aim was to identify important microRNAs (miRNAs) that might play an important role in contributing to aortic dissection by conducting a miRNA profile comparison between thoracic aortic dissection (TAD) and normal thoracic aorta.
  
  
  METHODS
  The differentially expressed miRNA profiles of the aortic tissue between TAD patients (n = 6) and age-matched donors without aortic diseases (NA; n = 6) were analyzed by miRNA microarray. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was further performed to verify the expression of 12 selected miRNAs with an increased number of samples (TAD n = 12; NA n = 8). The potential targets of the differentially expressed miRNAs were predicted using computational searches. Bioinformatic analyses of the predicted target genes (gene ontology, pathway and network analysis) were done for further research. Additionally, Western blotting was performed to confirm the bioinformatics findings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The miRNA microarray revealed differentially expressed miRNAs between the TAD and NA groups. In the TAD group, 18 miRNAs were upregulated and 56 were downregulated (fold change >2, P < .01). qRT-PCR verified statistically consistent expression of seven selected miRNAs with microarray analysis. Combined with our previous proteomics study, target gene prediction revealed that some miRNAs reciprocally expressed with their targeted proteins. Target gene-related pathway analysis showed a significant change in five pathways in the TAD group compared with the NA group, especially the focal adhesion and the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways. By further conducting miRNA gene network analysis, we found that the mir-29 and mir-30 families are likely to play a role in the regulation of these two pathways, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results indicate that miRNAs expression profiles in aortic media from TAD were significantly changed. These results may provide important insights into TAD disease mechanisms. This study also suggests that the focal adhesion and MAPK signaling pathways might play important roles in the pathogenesis of TAD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Vascular Surgery, Changhai Hospital, the Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Mingfang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Sili
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.forename: Jianfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.forename: Lewei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zhiqing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Junmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.forename: Zaiping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jing
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000784:Aortic Dissection / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D017545:Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D015153:Blotting, Western; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002681:China; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D019295:Computational Biology; D051417:Focal Adhesion Kinase 1 / Q000235:genetics; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D006801:Humans; D020935:MAP Kinase Signaling System / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000032:analysis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: C532045:MIRN29a microRNA, human; C546086:MIRN30b microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs; D051417:Focal Adhesion Kinase 1; C496050:PTK2 protein, human