Identification of suitable endogenous controls and differentially expressed microRNAs in canine fresh-frozen and FFPE lymphoma samples.

The elucidation of microRNA (miRNA) expression pattern in canine lymphoma is attractive for veterinary and comparative oncology due to similar genetics, physiology and exposure to environment in dogs and humans. In this work, the expression of a panel of mature miRNAs was quantitated in fresh-frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) lymph nodes from canine lymphoma. The major findings were: the detection of a panel of miRNAs expressed in canine lymph node; the identification of three suitable endogenous controls (let-7a, miR-16, and miR-26b) by NormFinder and geNorm analysis; the concordance between results obtained from fresh-frozen and FFPE samples; the detection of upregulation of miR-17-5p and miR-181a in B- and T-cell lymphomas respectively. This is the first study aimed to the application of miRNAs analysis in canine lymphoma.