The Pediatric Department, Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre 2650, Denmark.
The Pediatric Department, Holbaek Hospital, Holbaek 4300, Denmark.
Aging (Albany NY). 2021 Mar 1;13(5):6359-6374. doi: 10.18632/aging.202715.
Despite significant evidence that the expression of several microRNAs (miRNAs) impacts disease activity in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), it remains unknown if the more severe disease phenotype seen in pediatric onset UC can be explained by an altered miRNA expression. In this study, we assessed the relationship between miRNA expression, age, and disease severity in pediatric and adult patients with UC. Using RT-qPCR, we analyzed the expression of miR-21, miR-31, miR-126, miR-142 and miR-155 in paraffin embedded rectum biopsies from 30 pediatric and 30 adult-onset UC patients. We found that lesions from adult patients had significantly higher expression levels of miR-21 compared to pediatric patients and that the expression levels of miR-31 (all patients) and miR-155 (pediatric patients only) correlated inversely with histological assessed disease severity. Using hybridization followed by image analysis, the expression level estimates of miR-21 and miR-126 correlated with histological assessed disease severity. In conclusion, we found that the expression of miRNAs depends on the age of the patient and/or the severity of the disease, suggesting that miRNAs may contribute to the regulation of inflammation in UC and could be useful biomarkers in the surveillance of disease severity.
尽管有大量证据表明，几种 microRNAs（miRNAs）的表达会影响溃疡性结肠炎（UC）患者的疾病活动，但目前尚不清楚在儿童发病的 UC 中更严重的疾病表型是否可以用 miRNA 表达的改变来解释。在这项研究中，我们评估了 miRNA 表达、年龄和疾病严重程度在儿童和成人 UC 患者之间的关系。我们使用 RT-qPCR 分析了 30 例儿童和 30 例成人发病 UC 患者直肠活检组织石蜡标本中 miR-21、miR-31、miR-126、miR-142 和 miR-155 的表达。我们发现，与儿童患者相比，成人患者的病变中 miR-21 的表达水平显著升高，miR-31（所有患者）和 miR-155（仅儿童患者）的表达水平与组织学评估的疾病严重程度呈负相关。通过杂交后进行图像分析，miR-21 和 miR-126 的表达水平估计与组织学评估的疾病严重程度相关。总之，我们发现 miRNA 的表达取决于患者的年龄和/或疾病的严重程度，这表明 miRNA 可能有助于 UC 中炎症的调节，并且可能是疾病严重程度监测的有用生物标志物。
