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Age-Related Differences in miRNA Expression in Mexican-American Newborns and Children

Epigenetic mechanisms have emerged as an important pathway through which environmental exposures can affect health through the regulation of gene expression without changes in DNA sequence: microRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that target protein-coding mRNAs, leading to post-transcriptional...

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Autores principales: Huen, Karen, Lizarraga, Daneida, Kogut, Katherine, Eskenazi, Brenda, Holland, Nina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6406617/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30781749
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16040524
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author Huen, Karen
Lizarraga, Daneida
Kogut, Katherine
Eskenazi, Brenda
Holland, Nina
author_facet Huen, Karen
Lizarraga, Daneida
Kogut, Katherine
Eskenazi, Brenda
Holland, Nina
author_sort Huen, Karen
collection PubMed
description Epigenetic mechanisms have emerged as an important pathway through which environmental exposures can affect health through the regulation of gene expression without changes in DNA sequence: microRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that target protein-coding mRNAs, leading to post-transcriptional repression. They are involved in important physiologic processes, but little is known about how miRNA expression may change with age in children. We used an nCounter miRNA assay to assess the expression of 43 miRNAs in buffy coat samples collected from newborns (n = 121) and 7-year-old (n = 142) children. We identified 36 miRNAs that were differentially expressed between newborns and 7-year-olds after controlling for blood cell composition. Using pathway analysis, we found that differentially expressed miRNAs targeted genes enriched for processes related to post-translational modifications, metabolism, and immune response. Our study found that unlike adults, where miRNA expression levels in peripheral blood may decrease with age, expression levels of most miRNAs increased from birth to mid-childhood. This may be reflective of the role miRNAs may play in the highly coordinated mechanisms regulating genes involved in children’s development. Furthermore, it will be important to adjust for both age and blood cell composition in future pediatric studies of miRNA expression in blood.
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spelling pubmed-64066172019-03-21 Age-Related Differences in miRNA Expression in Mexican-American Newborns and Children Huen, Karen Lizarraga, Daneida Kogut, Katherine Eskenazi, Brenda Holland, Nina Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Epigenetic mechanisms have emerged as an important pathway through which environmental exposures can affect health through the regulation of gene expression without changes in DNA sequence: microRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that target protein-coding mRNAs, leading to post-transcriptional repression. They are involved in important physiologic processes, but little is known about how miRNA expression may change with age in children. We used an nCounter miRNA assay to assess the expression of 43 miRNAs in buffy coat samples collected from newborns (n = 121) and 7-year-old (n = 142) children. We identified 36 miRNAs that were differentially expressed between newborns and 7-year-olds after controlling for blood cell composition. Using pathway analysis, we found that differentially expressed miRNAs targeted genes enriched for processes related to post-translational modifications, metabolism, and immune response. Our study found that unlike adults, where miRNA expression levels in peripheral blood may decrease with age, expression levels of most miRNAs increased from birth to mid-childhood. This may be reflective of the role miRNAs may play in the highly coordinated mechanisms regulating genes involved in children’s development. Furthermore, it will be important to adjust for both age and blood cell composition in future pediatric studies of miRNA expression in blood. MDPI 2019-02-13 2019-02 /pmc/articles/PMC6406617/ /pubmed/30781749 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16040524 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Huen, Karen
Lizarraga, Daneida
Kogut, Katherine
Eskenazi, Brenda
Holland, Nina
Age-Related Differences in miRNA Expression in Mexican-American Newborns and Children
title Age-Related Differences in miRNA Expression in Mexican-American Newborns and Children
title_full Age-Related Differences in miRNA Expression in Mexican-American Newborns and Children
title_fullStr Age-Related Differences in miRNA Expression in Mexican-American Newborns and Children
title_full_unstemmed Age-Related Differences in miRNA Expression in Mexican-American Newborns and Children
title_short Age-Related Differences in miRNA Expression in Mexican-American Newborns and Children
title_sort age-related differences in mirna expression in mexican-american newborns and children
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6406617/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30781749
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16040524
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