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Plasma miR-17-5p, miR-20a and miR-22 are down-regulated in women with endometriosis
Shuang-Zheng Jia1, Yunpeng Yang, Jinghe Lang
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, PR China.
Study Question:
Can plasma microRNAs be used as a non-invasive diagnostic test for the detection of endometriosis?
Summary Answer:
Plasma miR-17-5p, miR-20a and miR-22 are down-regulated in women with endometriosis compared with those without endometriosis in mainland China.
What Is Known Already:
There is currently a pressing need to develop a non-invasive diagnostic test for endometriosis. Altered circulating microRNA profiles have already been linked to various disease states.
Study Design, Size, And Duration:
This was a prospective laboratory study in a tertiary-referral university hospital in Beijing, PR China, between January 2012 and May 2012. Twenty-three women with histologically proven endometriosis and 23 endometriosis-free controls were enrolled in this study.
Participants/Materials, Setting, And Methods:
Laparoscopic inspection of the abdominopelvic cavity was performed for each patient, and peripheral blood samples were collected before laparoscopy. Microarray-based microRNA expression profiling was used to identify differentially expressed microRNAs in plasma samples between women with and without endometriosis, and quantification of selected microRNAs was performed using quantitative RT-PCR.
Main Results And The Role Of Chance:
Twenty-seven microRNAs were differentially expressed between women with and without endometriosis, of which six microRNAs (miR-15b-5p, miR-17-5p, miR-20a, miR-21, miR-22 and miR-26a) were selected for validation. MiR-17-5p, miR-20a and miR-22 were significantly down-regulated in women with endometriosis compared with controls (P = 0.011, 0.0020 and 0.0002, respectively), yielding an area under the receiver operator characteristics curve of 0.74 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.58-0.90], 0.79 (95% CI: 0.65-0.93) and 0.85 (95% CI: 0.71-0.98) in discriminating endometriosis from controls, respectively.
Limitations And Reasons For Caution:
Our sample size was small and all cases were rAFS stage III-IV, which may limit generalization of plasma microRNAs for early diagnosis of endometriosis. Moreover, only six microRNAs were selected for validation.
Wider Implications Of The Findings:
Plasma microRNAs provide a promising opportunity for detection of endometriosis.
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