Abstract
Lower extremity artery disease (LEAD) is an underestimated chronic vascular disease caused by the formation of atherosclerotic plaques in the lower limb arteries. The pathological processes underlying this disease are regulated by many various factors, including microRNAs (miRNAs). miRNAs constitute a pool of small, non-coding RNAs with a gene expression modulatory function. In the presented study, differentially expressed miRNAs were identified in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 18 patients with LEAD compared to 10 healthy volunteers using OpenArray RT-qPCR. Sixteen miRNAs were significantly differentially expressed in the LEAD group. Four out of them, hsa-miR-138-5p, -34a-3p, -34a-5p, and -766-3p, were consistent with a previous next-generation sequencing study. The in silico analysis performed for these four miRNAs showed associations with vascular smooth muscle cells differentiation, inflammation, and apoptosis, potentially resulting from modulation of genes involved in cell cycle, cellular adhesion, and Notch signaling. The presented study expands our knowledge on the role of miRNA in the pathology of LEAD, providing potential candidates for biomarkers of this disease.
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Data availability
The data used in this study are openly available in the FigShare repository at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19494821.v1.
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Acknowledgements
The research was performed using the equipment purchased within the project “The equipment of innovative laboratories doing research on new medicines used in the therapy of civilization and neoplastic diseases” within the Operational Program Development of Eastern Poland 2007–2013, Priority Axis I Modern Economy, Operations I.3 Innovation Promotion. Presented results were partially obtained using the apparatus located in the Center ECOTECH-COMPLEX in Lublin, purchased under the project “ECOTECH-COMPLEX Man, Environment, Production” project No POIG.02.01.00-06-212/09 funded from the European Regional Development Fund 2007–2013 by the National Center for Research and Development in Poland.
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This research was funded by the statutory funds of the Medical University of Lublin, grant number DS43 to Anna Bogucka-Kocka.
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Conceptualization: MF, JK, and AB-K; data curation: DZ and AS; formal analysis: DZ and AB-K; funding acquisition: AB-K; investigation: DZ; methodology, DZ, KR, MF, JK, and AB-K; project administration, AS and AB-K; resources: AS, MF, and JK; software: DZ, AS, and AB-K; supervision: AS, MF, JK, and AB-K; validation: DZ, KR, MF, and AB-K; visualization: DZ; writing — original draft: DZ; writing — review and editing: KR, DG, MF, and AB-K.
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Marcin Feldo, Janusz Kocki and Anna Bogucka-Kocka shared senior authorship.
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Zalewski, D.P., Ruszel, K.P., Stępniewski, A. et al. Application of OpenArray RT-qPCR for identification of microRNA expression signatures of lower extremity artery disease. J Appl Genetics 63, 497–512 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13353-022-00692-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13353-022-00692-1