Identification of differentially expressed microRNAs in the bone marrow of osteoporosis patients.

This study aimed to identify specific microRNAs (miRNAs) related to postmenopausal osteoporosis (OP) in human. A total of 67 conserved miRNAs, including 50 miRNAs significantly up-regulated and 17 miRNAs significantly downregulated, showed differential expression between OP group and control group. 180 hairpin structures were predicted and 199 potential novel miRNA candidates with 18 to 25 nt in length, which will greatly enrich the human miRBase. 4 miRNAs (miR-518b, miR-582-3p, miR-148a-3p and miRNA-223-3p) had upregulated expression and 4 (miR-7d-5p, miR-210-3p, miR-324-5p and miR-654-3p) showed down-regulated expression. Target genes of these miRNAs were involved in bone development, cell proliferation in bone marrow, osteoblast development, negative regulation of osteoblast differentiation, and negative regulation of osteoclast development, as well as several osteogenesis related pathways. Canonical Wnt signaling pathway was selected for verification and function analysis. The expression of Wnt1, FZD10, LRP5, DVL2 and LEF1 was down-regulated significantly, while that of SFRP1, DKK1, and CHD8 was up-regulated markedly. In conclusion, these genes play important roles in OP, which improves our understanding of pathogenesis of OP.