Integrated microRNA and mRNA sequencing analysis of age‐related changes to mouse thymic epithelial cells

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play key roles in the regulation of gene expression during multiple physiological processes, including early development, differentiation, and ageing. However, their involvement in age-related thymic involution is not clear. In this study, we profiled the global transcriptome and miRNAome of thymic epithelial cells in 1- and 3-month-old male and female mice, and predicted the possible transcription factors and target genes of the four most significantly differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) (miR-183-5p, miR-199b-5p, miR-205-5p, and miR-200b-3p) by performing bioinformatics analyses. We also evaluated the relationships between the significantly DEMs and mRNAs. We performed quantitative polymerase chain reaction to confirm the changes in the expression of the miRNAs and their predicted target genes. We found that miR-183-5p, miR-199b-5p, miR-205-5p, and miR-200b-3p can be used as a biomarker group for mouse thymus development and involution. In addition, the predicted target genes (Ptpn4, Slc2a9, Pkib, Pecam1, and Prkdc), which were identified by mRNA sequencing analysis, were mainly involved in growth, development, and accelerated senescence. In conclusion, miRNAs and their predicted target genes likely play important roles in thymus development and involution. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically analyze the relevance of miRNAs and their targets by mRNA sequencing in mouse thymic epithelial cells. © 2018 IUBMB Life, 70(7):678-690, 2018.

Effects of Castration on miRNA, lncRNA, and mRNA Profiles in Mice Thymus

“…miR-15a promotes the proliferation of mouse lymphocytes by regulating the expression of cell cycle-related genes [68]. miR-200b-3p can be used as a biomarker for mouse thymus development and degradation [40]. These are consistent with our experimental results.…”

“…Then, cells were diluted with RPMI-1640 (Gibco, Waltham, MA, USA) containing 10% fetal bovine serum (Gibco, Waltham, MA, USA) and 0.2% penicillin / streptomycin (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) and culture for 24 h in 37 • C at 5% CO 2 to remove adherent cells. TECS were isolated from mice thymus in our previous experiments [40]. TECS were cultured in DMEM (Gibco, Waltham, MA, USA) containing 10% fetal bovine serum (Gibco, Waltham, MA, USA) and 0.2% penicillin / streptomycin (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) at 37 • C in 5% CO 2 .…”

Identification of potential diagnostic biomarkers for pneumonia caused by adenovirus infection in children by screening serum exosomal microRNAs

“…The differentially expressed miRNAs were detected using the edgeR package version 3.8 (R, ). miRNAs with >2 or <0.5-fold change, and P<0.01 (no correction for Type I error was applied) were considered as differentially expressed miRNAs (19,20).…”

Age-related transcriptional modules and TF-miRNA-mRNA interactions in neonatal and infant human thymus

“…MiR-181a-5p expression is required for positive and negative thymocyte selection [50]; it was shown to regulate mTEC proliferation and age-related thymic involution in mice [51]. MiR-205-5p is highly expressed in mTECs and its expression changes correlate with thymic development and involution [52]. MiR-150-5p, which is abundantly expressed in all five age groups, is important for T-cell maturation, being upregulated after the DP stage [53].…”