Department of Pediatrics, Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, People's Republic of China.
J Cell Biochem. 2014 May;115(5):910-8. doi: 10.1002/jcb.24733.
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) represent a sub-group of noncoding RNAs that are longer than 200 nucleotides. The characterization of lncRNAs and their acceptance as crucial regulators of numerous developmental and biological pathways have suggested that the lncRNA study has gradually become one of the hot topics in the field of RNA biology. Many lncRNAs show spatially and temporally restricted expression patterns during embryogenesis and organogenesis. This study aimed to characterize the lncRNA profile of the fetal mouse heart at three key time points (embryonic day E11.5, E14.5, and E18.5) in its development, by performing a microarray lncRNAs screen. Gene Ontology analysis and ingenuity pathway analysis showed some significant gene functions and pathways were altered in heart development process. We compared lncRNAs profile between the three points (E14.5 vs. E11.5 [early development]; E18.5 vs. E14.5 [later development]). A total of 1,237 lncRNAs were found to have consistent fold changes (>2.0) between the three time points. Among them, 20 dysregulated lncRNAs were randomly selected and confirmed by real-time qRT-PCR. Additionally, bioinformatics analysis of AK011347 suggested it may be involved in heart development through the target gene Map3k7. In summary, this study identified differentially expressed lncRNAs in the three time points studied, and these lncRNAs may provide a new clue of mechanism of normal heart development.
长链非编码 RNA（lncRNA）是一类长度大于 200 个核苷酸的非编码 RNA。lncRNA 的特征及其作为许多发育和生物学途径关键调控因子的作用，表明 lncRNA 研究已逐渐成为 RNA 生物学领域的热门话题之一。许多 lncRNA 在胚胎发生和器官发生过程中表现出时空受限的表达模式。本研究旨在通过 microarray lncRNAs 筛选，描述胚胎发育过程中三个关键时间点（胚胎第 11.5 天、第 14.5 天和第 18.5 天）的胎鼠心脏的 lncRNA 图谱。基因本体论分析和 ingenuity 通路分析显示，心脏发育过程中一些重要的基因功能和通路发生了改变。我们比较了三个时间点（E14.5 与 E11.5[早期发育]；E18.5 与 E14.5[晚期发育]）之间的 lncRNA 图谱。在三个时间点之间发现了总共 1,237 个具有一致倍数变化（>2.0）的 lncRNA。其中，随机选择了 20 个差异表达的 lncRNA 并通过实时 qRT-PCR 进行了验证。此外，对 AK011347 的生物信息学分析表明，它可能通过靶基因 Map3k7 参与心脏发育。总之，本研究鉴定了三个时间点差异表达的 lncRNA，这些 lncRNA 可能为正常心脏发育的机制提供新线索。
