MicroRNA expression profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by the presence of autoantibodies against numerous self-antigens. Evidence underlines the importance of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the pathogenesis of SLE, but the exact etiology of this disease is unknown. Therefore, this study was conducted to explore regulation of abnormal miRNAs in SLE using microarray analysis. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from SLE patients and their matched controls were isolated appropriately. Total RNAs from each cell sample were extracted and used for microarray analysis. A total of 29 miRNAs were identified to be down-regulated in PBMCs of SLE patients as compared with healthy controls (P<0.05, fold change>2). No significant up-regulated miRNAs were found in SLE patients. Results of gene ontology analysis indicated that the potential target genes of these miRNAs mainly enriched in the development process, transcription regulator activity, ligand binding, etc. Meanwhile, these putative genes were also found to be involved in diverse signaling transduction pathways, including multiple cancer pathways, Wnt and mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways, etc. This study revealed possible dysregulated biological processes and pathways in SLE that were targeted by the differentially expressed miRNAs, indicating the involvement of these miRNAs in the pathogenesis of SLE.