title: Evaluation of miR-9 and miR-143 expression in urine specimens of sulfur mustard exposed patients.
abstract: Sulfur mustard (SM) or mustard gas is a chemical alkylating agent that causes blisters in the skin (blister gas), burns the eyes and causes lung injury. Some major cellular pathways are involved in the damage caused by mustard gas such as NF-κb signaling, TGF-β signaling, WNT pathway, inflammation, DNA repair and apoptosis. MicroRNAs are non-coding small RNAs (19-25 nucleotides) that are involved in the regulation of gene expression and are found in two forms, extracellular and intracellular. Changes in the levels of extracellular microRNAs are directly associated with many diseases, it is thus common to study the level of extracellular microRNAs as a biomarker to determine the pathophysiologic status. In this study, 32 mustard gas injured patients and 32healthy subjects participated. Comparative evaluation of miR-9 and miR-143 expression in urine samples was performed by Real Time PCR and Graph Pad software. The Mann Whitney t-test analysis of data showed that the expression level of miR-143 and miR-9 had a significant decrease in sulfur mustard individuals with the respective p-value of 0.0480 and 0.0272 compared to normal samples, with an imbalance of several above mentioned pathways. It seems that reducing the expression level of these genes has a very important role in the pathogenicity of mustard gas injured patients.
authors.affiliation: Human Genetic Research Center, Baqiyatallah Medical Sciences University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mostafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Khafaei
authors.affiliation: Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization Research Center, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Shahram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Samie
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biological Sciences, Department of Genetics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Javad
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Mowla
authors.affiliation: Human Genetic Research Center, Baqiyatallah Medical Sciences University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Akbar Ghorbani
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Alvanegh
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biological Sciences, Department of Genetics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Behnaz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mirzaei
authors.affiliation: Human Genetic Research Center, Baqiyatallah Medical Sciences University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Somaye
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chavoshei
authors.affiliation: Human Genetic Research Center, Baqiyatallah Medical Sciences University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ghamar Soltan
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Dorraj
authors.affiliation: Human Genetic Research Center, Baqiyatallah Medical Sciences University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mostafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Esmailnejad
authors.affiliation: Human Genetic Research Center, Baqiyatallah Medical Sciences University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mahmood
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tavallaie
authors.affiliation: System Biology Institute, Chemical injuries Research Center, Baqiyatallah Medical Sciences University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammadreza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nourani
keywords: apoptosis; bronchiolitis; inflammation; microRNA; mustard; pathways