Characterization of microRNA expression profiling in peripheral blood lymphocytes in rats with experimental autoimmune uveitis

• DOI: 10.1007/s00011-015-0848-3
• Publication Date: 2015-07-07T14:15:09Z
• Authors: Dadong Guo; Jiao Li; Zhengfeng Liu; Kai Tang; Huixin Song; Hongsheng Bi
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; CD4-CD8 Ratio; Eye; Peptide Fragments; Autoimmune Diseases; 3. Good health; Retinol-Binding Proteins; Uveitis; Disease Models, Animal; MicroRNAs; 03 medical and health sciences; Gene Ontology; Rats, Inbred Lew; Animals; Lymphocytes; RNA, Messenger

We aimed to investigate the alterations of microRNA (miRNA) genomics in peripheral blood lymphocytes in experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU) rats versus control samples.Six Lewis rats received interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP) emulsion to induce EAU. On day 12, peripheral blood lymphocytes were isolated, and total RNAs were extracted. Using microarray analysis, we analyzed the aberrant miRNAs, validated the relevant expression of differentially expressed miRNAs, and predicted the possible miRNA targets and signaling pathways.The results indicated that 36 miRNAs were upregulated and 31 miRNAs were downregulated in EAU rats versus normal samples. Real-time quantitative PCR substantiated a high degree of confidence for the differentially expressed miRNAs, and miRNA analyses showed the differentially expressed miRNA targets were involved not only in the multicellular organismal process and developmental process, but also in T cell receptor signaling pathway, B cell receptor signaling pathway and so on.Our findings show that the differentially expressed miRNAs in EAU rats were closely associated with immune signaling pathways and may be applied in early prevention, prognosis and possible therapy in uveitis, indicating that miRNAs play an important role in the development of uveitis.