title: Identification of active miRNA and transcription factor regulatory pathways in human obesity-related inflammation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Obesity-induced chronic inflammation plays a fundamental role in the pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome (MS). Recently, a growing body of evidence supports that miRNAs are largely dysregulated in obesity and that specific miRNAs regulate obesity-associated inflammation. We applied an approach aiming to identify active miRNA-TF-gene regulatory pathways in obesity. Firstly, we detected differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmiRs) from mRNA and miRNA expression profiles, respectively. Secondly, by mapping the DEGs and DEmiRs to the curated miRNA-TF-gene regulatory network as active seed nodes and connect them with their immediate neighbors, we obtained the potential active miRNA-TF-gene regulatory subnetwork in obesity. Thirdly, using a Breadth-First-Search (BFS) algorithm, we identified potential active miRNA-TF-gene regulatory pathways in obesity. Finally, through the hypergeometric test, we identified the active miRNA-TF-gene regulatory pathways that were significantly related to obesity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The potential active pathways with FDR < 0.0005 were considered to be the active miRNA-TF regulatory pathways in obesity. The union of the active pathways is visualized and identical nodes of the active pathways were merged.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We identified 23 active miRNA-TF-gene regulatory pathways that were significantly related to obesity-related inflammation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Histology and Embryology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150081, PR China. ximei1119@126.com.
authors.forename: Xi-Mei
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150081, PR China. guolin821@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Teaching Experiment Center of Morphology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150081, PR China. 57557413@qq.com.
authors.forename: Mei-Hua
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.affiliation: College of Bioinformatics Science and Technology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150081, PR China. sunhongmei@hrbmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hong-Mei
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: College of Bioinformatics Science and Technology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150081, PR China. xiaowenchen8266@163.com.
authors.forename: Xiao-Wen
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D016208:Databases, Factual; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000209:etiology*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D014157:Transcription Factors