Evaluation of miRNA-27a/b expression in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia
Reihaneh Keshavarz1, Seyed Hamid Aghaee-Bakhtiari2, Parviz Pakzad3
1Department of Genetics, Faculty of Biological Science, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
Introduction:
We aimed to evaluate the serum level of miRNA-27 expression in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH).
Material And Methods:
miRNA-27a/b levels in serum were compared between 39 patients with heterozygous FH (HeFH = 20) and homozygous FH (HoFH = 19), and 20 healthy subjects (control group). The expression level of miRNA-27a/b was measured using real-time PCR.
Results:
miRNA-27a/b expression in heFH patients (fold change: 2.21 ±0.69, p = 0.001) and in the subgroup of hoFH (fold change: 3 ±1.19, p = 0.001) was significantly higher compared to healthy people. In the comparison between HoFH and HeFH, the HoFH group had a significantly higher level of miRNA-27a/b expression (FC: 1.84 ±1.19, p = 0.009).
Conclusions:
We observed higher miRNA-27a/b expression in patients with FH than in healthy individuals. In comparison with HoFH and HeFH groups, the former had a higher expression level of miRNA-27a/b, which indicates the potential of miRNA-27a/b as a candidate marker for the severity of disease in individuals with FH.
