Abstract
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a clinically heterogeneous, human systemic autoimmune disease characterized by autoantibody formation. MicroRNAs (miRNA) have emerged as an important new class of modulators of gene expression and have been confirmed to regulate the lymphocyte tolerance and autoimmunity in SLE. In this study, we investigated the exosome of serum miRNA profile in SLE patients with miRNA array (nanosting). TaqMan-based stem-loop real-time polymerase chain reaction was used for validation. We also examined the serum cytokines of IL-29 and then analyzed the association of the upregulated of IL-29 and miRNA-548n. Microarray analysis of miRNA indicated 4 downregulated miRNAs and 2 upreguated miRNAs in SLE patients. Such upregulation of hsa-miRNA-181d 3p, hsa-miRNA-542 and downregulation of hsa-miRNA-548n, hsa-miRNA-16, and hsa-miRNA-122 and has-miRNA-183 was also confirmed by RT-qPCR. We also recognized the upregulation of serum IL-29 in those active SLE patients. The upregulated miRNA-548n contributed to the upregulation of inflammatory IL-29 in active SLE. Our findings demonstrate that miRNA-548n can be a novel biomarker for SLE, and help elucidate pathogenic mechanisms of SLE.
