Association of micro RNA expressions with pediatric celiac clinical findings

Abstract

There is a need to determine the relationship between the function of the immune system and miRNA expression in pediatric celiac disease (pCD). We aimed to describe the expression profiles of miRNAs in Turkish pCD patients based on the clinical and pathological findings. This study was conducted on 33 pCD patients and 33 pediatric control subjects with normal biopsy results. Four most common mutations (DQA1*05, DQB1*02, DQA1*03, DQB1*03:0.2) on HLA gene in pCD were screened. Paraffin-embedded biopsy tissue samples were used in miRNA isolations followed by cDNA synthesis. Expression of miRNAs were evaluated in the groups with qRT-PCR array-method. Significant underexpression of hsa-miR-194-5p gene was detected in pCD patients compared to the control group. The hsa-miR-194-5p gene was significantly underexpressed in anemic or short stature pCD patients compared to the control. The genes of hsa-miR-29b-3p, hsa-miR-30e-5p, and hsa-miR-146a-5p were significantly overexpressed in the patients with constipated celiac patients. Significant overexpression of hsa-miR146a-5p gene was detected in the Marsh2 and Marsh3a groups. The hsa-miR-29b-3p, hsa-miR-30e-5p, hsa-let-7a-5p, hsa-miR-27a-3p, hsa-miR141-3p, hsa-miR143-3p, and hsa-miR-146a-5p miRNA genes were significantly overexpressed in the Marsh3b group. Also, the hsa-miR-194-5p and hsa-miR-26a-5p genes were significantly underexpressed in the comparison of Marsh3c group to the control. These results suggest that miRNA expressions are likely to play a role in the pathogenesis of pCD. It is believed that the current results present valuable inferences that may help understand the genetic boundaries on pCD, which might be further supported by follow up studies on other miRNAs.