BioProject

Aberrantly expressed miRNAs contribute to developmental abnormalities and diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disorders, by hybridizing to specific mRNA targets and repressing their translation into proteins. More...

Aberrantly expressed miRNAs contribute to developmental abnormalities and diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disorders, by hybridizing to specific mRNA targets and repressing their translation into proteins. Although miRNA expression signature is characterized in the process of neointimal thickening during proliferative vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, so far global miRNA expression profiling in the different stages of atherosclerosis is completely unknown. We explored stage-specific microRNA signatures in the progress of atherosclerosis in hyperlipidemia mouse model, which may help to identify the critical miRNAs contributing atherosclerotic development and stabilization. Overall design: Female apoe-/- mice (6-8 weeks, Jackson Laboratory) were fed a high fat diet (HFD, 21% crude fat, 0.15% cholesterol and 19.5% casein, Altromin, Germany) for 3 or 10 months (N=3-4). Serial sections (20 µm thick) of aortic roots and carotid arteries from these mice were mounted on membrane mounted metal frame slides (MMI), deparaffinized under RNase-free conditions, and completely dried. Laser capture microdissection (LCM) was performed with a laser microdissection system (MMI cellcut plus, Molecular Machines and Industries, Switzerland) assembled onto an inverted microscope (Olympus IX71). Plaque tissue or morphologically normal vessel wall of at least 40 sections per mouse were collected. RNA was isolated using RecoverAll total nucleic acid isolation kit (Applied Biosystems) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Less...