Description | identifying miRNAs that were significantly associated with non-valvular paroxysmal AF.
Methods: The RNA samples were isolated from healthy controls (n = 5) and patients with atrial fibrillation (n = 8). To
confirm the findings obtained by analyzing the miRNA profile, we measured the expression of selected miRNAs in
the entire cohort by quantitative PCR.
Results: Ten specific miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed between atrial fibrillation and healthy controls
with more than a 2-fold change (P < 0.05). Consistent with the data obtained for the profile, expression levels of
miRNA-155, miRNA-146b-5p and miRNA-19b were significantly increased in patients with atrial fibrillation. Interestingly,
levels of miRNA-146b-5p and miRNA-155, which are known to be associated with inflammation, were independently
and positively associated with left atrium dimension, atrial fibrillation duration and high sensitivity C-reactive protein
levels. By using four Databases (TargetScan, miRanda, Starbase Clip-seq and miRDB) to perform target gene prediction,
there were four genes were related to the inflammatory response and fibrosis, and three others encoding cardiac ion
channel proteins. As a result of TaqMan qPCR and Western analysis, the relative mRNA and protein expression level of
three target genes (DIER-1, TIMP-4 and CACNA1C) were significantly lower in the atrial fibrillation group than that in
the healthy control group.
Conclusions: Expression of inflammation-associated miRNAs is significantly up-regulated in the left atrial appendage of
patients with | en_US |