Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 7, 2017; 23(41): 7440-7449
Published online Nov 7, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i41.7440
Circulating miRNAs as biomarkers for severe acute pancreatitis associated with acute lung injury
Xiao-Guang Lu, Xin Kang, Li-Bin Zhan, Li-Min Kang, Zhi-Wei Fan, Li-Zhi Bai
Xiao-Guang Lu, Xin Kang, Zhi-Wei Fan, Li-Zhi Bai, Department of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Dalian University, Dalian 116001, Liaoning Province, China
Li-Bin Zhan, College of Basic Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210000, Jiangsu Province, China
Li-Min Kang, Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Puer People’s Hospital, Puer 665000, Yunnan Province, China
Author contributions: Lu XG and Kang X contributed equally to this work and should be regarded as co-first authors; Lu XG, Kang X, Zhan LB and Kang LM designed the study and drafted the manuscript; Kang X and Kang LM analyzed the data; Kang X, Kang LM, Fan ZW and Bai LZ provided blood plasma samples and edited the manuscript; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30971626 and No. 81473512.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Affiliated Zhongshan Hospital of Dalian University (IRB No. 2011-60).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment. All clinical data were obtained anonymously and innocuously.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Xiao-Guang Lu, MD, Department of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Dalian University, Dalian 116001, Liaoning Province, China. dllxg@126.com
Telephone: +86-411-62893126 Fax: +86-411-62893555
Received: May 29, 2017
Peer-review started: June 2, 2017
First decision: July 27, 2017
Revised: August 23, 2017
Accepted: September 20, 2017
Article in press: September 19, 2017
Published online: November 7, 2017
Abstract
AIM

To identify circulating micro (mi)RNAs as biological markers for prediction of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) with acute lung injury (ALI).

METHODS

Twenty-four serum samples were respectively collected and classified as SAP associated with ALI and SAP without ALI, and the miRNA expression profiles were determined by microarray analysis. These miRNAs were validated by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and their putative targets were predicted by the online software TargetScan, miRanda and PicTar database. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (commonly known as KEGG) were used to predict their possible functions and pathways involved.

RESULTS

We investigated 287 miRNAs based on microarray data analysis. Twelve miRNAs were differentially expressed in the patients with SAP with ALI and those with SAP without ALI. Hsa-miR-1260b, 762, 22-3p, 23b and 23a were differently up-regulated and hsa-miR-550a*, 324-5p, 484, 331-3p, 140-3p, 342-3p and 150 were differently down-regulated in patients with SAP with ALI compared to those with SAP without ALI. In addition, 85 putative target genes of the significantly dysregulated miRNAs were found by TargetScan, miRanda and PicTar. Finally, GO and pathway network analysis showed that they were mainly enriched in signal transduction, metabolic processes, cytoplasm and cell membranes.

CONCLUSION

This is the first study to identify 12 circulating miRNAs in patients with SAP with ALI, which may be biomarkers for prediction of ALI after SAP.

Keywords: miRNAs, Severe acute pancreatitis, Acute lung injury, Biomarker, Microarray analysis

Core tip: Early diagnosis of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) associated with acute lung injury (ALI) is still difficult. Our study is the first to identify 12 differentially expressed circulating microRNAs in patients with SAP with ALI, which may be used as circulating biomarkers for prediction of acute lung injury induced by SAP.