Department of Medical Genetics, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, China.
PLoS One. 2011;6(12):e28730. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0028730. Epub 2011 Dec 14.
miRNAs have been found to repress gene expression at posttranscriptional level in cells. Studies have shown that expression of miRNAs is tissue-specific and developmental-stage-specific. The mechanism behind this could be explained by miRNA pathways. In this study, totally 54 miRNAs were analysed in 7 matched human foetal and adult organs (brain, colon, heart, kidney, liver, lung and spleen) using real-time PCR. Quantitative analysis showed that a big proportion of the 54 miRNAs have higher general expression in the organs of the foetal period than the adult period, with the exception of the heart. The miRNA gene promoter methylation level in the adult stages was higher than in the foetal stages. Moreover, there is a high general expression level of several miRNAs in both stages of brain, kidney, liver, lung and spleen, but not seen in colon and heart. Our results indicate that the miRNAs may play a bigger role in the foetal stage than the adult stage of brain, colon, kidney, liver, lung and spleen. The majority of the miRNAs analysed may play an important role in the growth and development of brain, kidney, liver, lung and spleen. However, a minority of the miRNAs may be functional in colon and heart.
miRNAs 被发现可在细胞内的转录后水平抑制基因表达。研究表明，miRNAs 的表达具有组织特异性和发育阶段特异性。这一现象背后的机制可以通过 miRNA 通路来解释。在这项研究中，我们使用实时 PCR 技术对 7 对匹配的人类胎儿和成人器官（大脑、结肠、心脏、肾脏、肝脏、肺和脾脏）中的 54 个 miRNAs 进行了分析。定量分析表明，在大多数情况下，54 个 miRNAs 中，有相当一部分在胎儿期的表达水平高于成人期，只有心脏例外。成人阶段的 miRNA 基因启动子甲基化水平高于胎儿阶段。此外，在大脑、肾脏、肝脏、肺和脾脏的两个阶段中，有几个 miRNAs 呈现出较高的总体表达水平，但在结肠和心脏中则没有。我们的研究结果表明，miRNAs 在大脑、结肠、肾脏、肝脏、肺和脾脏的胎儿期比成人期可能发挥更大的作用。在大脑、肾脏、肝脏、肺和脾脏的生长和发育过程中，大多数分析的 miRNAs 可能发挥着重要作用。然而，少数 miRNAs 可能在结肠和心脏中具有功能。
