title: A microarray for microRNA profiling in spermatozoa from adult men living in an environmentally polluted site.
abstract: We compared the miRNA expression profiles of spermatozoa from adult men living in an environment contaminated with electronic waste with those living in a normal environment, using a miRNA microarray. There were 73 significantly upregulated and 109 downregulated miRNAs in spermatozoa from men in the polluted environment compared with controls. Ten miRNAs were expressed significantly differently between the control and polluted samples and this result were further confirmed through quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction amplification. A bioinformatics pipeline was developed to distinguish relationship with spermatogenesis. Our data indicated specific miRNAs expression of spermatozoa in men living in environmentally polluted sites and suggested that miRNAs have a role in regulating spermatogenesis. We also propose a subclassification scheme for miRNAs for assisting future experimental and computational functional analyses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Medical School of Ningbo University, 818 Fenghua Rd, Ningbo, 315211 Zhejiang, China. liyan@nbu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Mingcai
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yuxin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Gaihuan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Ningsheng
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000378:metabolism*; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013091:Spermatogenesis / Q000187:drug effects; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs