Differential Regulation of microRNAs in Patients with Ischemic Stroke

MicroRNAs have been discovered as regulators of gene expression and thus their potential in clinical disease diagnostics, prognosis and therapy is being actively pursued. MicroRNAs play an important role in atherosclerosis-related diseases, such as cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease. However, the effect of miR-185 and miR-146a on patients with ischemic stroke (IS) in the different phases has not been reported. In this study, we investigated the amounts of three miRNAs, miR-185, miR-146a, and miR-145 in blood circulation of IS patients. We enrolled 60 patients with IS in the acute or sub-acute phase and 30 healthy controls. We divided the patients into two groups, patients with ischemic stroke in the acute phase (ISA) and patients with ischemic stroke in the subacute phase (ISS). We measured circulating miRNAs expression by miRNA microarray and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. Testing by miRNA microarray and RT-PCR analyses showed that miR-145 levels in healthy subjects were similar to patients with IS, whereas miR-146a and miR-185 were present with quite low abundance in ISA compared with healthy individuals; moreover, we found that miR-146a levels were downregulated in ISA but upregulated in ISS which may help provide new insights into the diagnosis and therapy of IS.