Abstract WP541: Profiling of Microrna From Atherosclerotic Tissues and Validation of Their Significance From Peripheral Blood of Ischemic Stroke Patients Having Atherosclerosis

Abstract

Background and Objectives: To search circulating microRNAs related to atherosclerosis, we first performed a microRNA expression profiling using atherosclerotic plaques. Then, their expression significance was validated using the serum of stroke patients having severe atherosclerosis on cranial vessels. Methods: We performed miRNA expressions from 10 carotid endarterectomy (CEA) plaques and 2 human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) lines using a microRNA microarray kit (TaqMan® Array MicroRNA Cards, Applied Biosystems®, Life Technologies). The expression differences were compared using relative quantitation (RQ=2 -(miRNA expression -reference RNA expression) ) between the CEA plaques and the HUVECs following a criteria including over 4-fold-up or less than 0.25-fold-down regulations after log2 transformation of the expression difference. Among the microRNAs showing significant expression differences, target microRNAs were selected using an internal clustering validation measurement (Xie-Beni index). The expression of the target microRNAs was validated with the serum of 32 patients with severe atherosclerosis and that of 33 patients with no atherosclerosis in intra- and extra-cranial vessels. Results: A total of 151 microRNAs were identified after the comparison of the microRNA expressions between CEA and HUVECs. Among them, eight miRNAs (miR199b, miR142-3p, miR145, miR145, miR204, miR9, miR370, miR23b, and miR363) were selected as the final target microRNAs after the clustering validation analysis. As for the validation experiments with the serum of the atherosclerosis and non-atherosclerosis patients, the RQ of miR142-3p (atherosclerosis, 3.79±7.57; no-atherosclerosis patients, 1.10±1.45, p=0.043), among the 8 target miRNAs, showed significant differences in the serum of patients with atherosclerosis. Conclusion: The present study profiled miRNAs from CEA plaques and validated their significance within the serum of atherosclerosis patients. These findings suggest that miR142-3P could be a potential marker for atherosclerosis that is detectable from the circulating blood.