Integrated microRNA-mRNA analyses of distinct expression profiles in
hyperoxia-induced bronchopulmonary dysplasia in neonatal mice.
Abstract
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a common chronic lung disease of
preterm neonates; the underlying pathogenesis is not fully understood.
Recent studies suggested microRNAs (miRNAs) may be involved in BPD. In
the present study, we performed miRNA and mRNA microarrays to analyze
the expression profiles of miRNA and mRNA in BPD and control lung
tissues. Our results showed that a total of 192 differentially expressed
miRNAs (74 downregulated and 118 upregulated) and 1225 differentially
expressed mRNAs (479 downregulated and 746 upregulated) were identified
between BPD mice and normoxia-control mice. Bioinformatics methods
including Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes
(KEGG) were performed to predict the potential functions of
differentially expressed genes. For downregulated genes, the top
significant enriched GO terms and KEGG pathways were both mainly related
to immune and inflammation processes. For upregulated genes, the top
significant enriched GO terms and KEGG pathways were both mainly related
to ECM remodeling. Quantitative Reverse Transcription-PCR,
protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and miRNA-mRNA regulatory
network construction were further performed to analyze the key genes and
pathways associated with inflammation and immune regulation. Our
findings may provide novel insights into the development of new
promising biomarkers for the treatment of BPD.