Expression pattern of genome-scale long noncoding RNA following acute myocardial infarction in Chinese Uyghur patients

In this study, we examined the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) expression pattern in Uyghur patients (a minority of China) with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) on a genome-wide scale. Total RNAs were extracted from the peripheral blood of 55 Uyghur AMI patients and 55 healthy volunteers. The expression levels of genome-wide scale lncRNAs and mRNAs were determined by microarray in 10 samples (5 AMI and 5 controls). qRT-PCR was used to validate lncRNA expression levels in 100 samples (50 AMI and 50 controls). Data analyses were performed using R and Bioconductor. A total of 3624 up- and 1637 down-regulated lncRNAs were identified to be significantly and differentially expressed between these two groups. The annotation result of their co-expressed mRNAs showed that the most significantly related category of GO analysis was regulation of biological processes, and the most significantly related pathway was apoptosis and its corresponding p53. The microarray identified ENST00000416860.2, ENST00000421157.1 and TCONS_00025701 lncRNAs were confirmed by qRT-PCR. Our study indicated that clusters of lncRNAs were significantly and differentially expressed in the peripheral blood of AMI patients when compared with healthy controls within the Uyghur population. These newly identified lncRNAs may have a potential role in the development of AMI.