title: Plasma miR-124 as a biomarker for cerebral infarction.
abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small RNAs that play an important role in various physiological processes by downregulating target genes. Recently, plasma miRNAs have been investigated as biomarkers for various diseases. In this study, miRNA array analysis in various tissues showed that miR-124 is almost exclusively expressed in the central nervous system and neuronal cells, suggesting that it might be useful as a potential biomarker for neurological diseases. We examined whether plasma concentrations of brain-specific miRNA can serve as a biomarker for cerebral infarction, where the cerebral infarction was modeled by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in the rat. Plasma concentrations of miR-124 were significantly elevated at 6 h, and remained elevated at 48 h after MCAO introduction. Thus, plasma concentration of miR-124 provides a promising candidate biomarker for early detection of cerebral infarction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genomic Medicine, Research Institute, National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Suita, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Huachun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.forename: Chunshen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Gou
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hirokawa
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Rie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Kana
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shimada
authors.forename: Chiharu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kishimoto
authors.forename: Naoharu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Iwai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D020244:Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D035683:MicroRNAs