Unbiased Profile of MicroRNA Expression in Ascending Aortic Aneurysm Tissue Appoints Molecular Pathways Contributing to the Pathology

MicroRNAs as possible biomarkers for screening of aortic aneurysms: a systematic review and validation study

“…A total of four studies have scored full marks by clearly answering all the questions (Liao et al 2011, Kin et al 2012, Chan et al 2015, Zhang et al 2015. Thirteen studies clearly identified the inclusion and exclusion criteria of cases and control groups ( Ikonomidis et al 2013, Biros et al 2014, Cheuk and Cheng 2014, Chan et al 2015, Richter et al 2016, Zhang et al 2015, Pei et al 2015, Wu et al 2016, Licholai et al 2016. In Spear et al 2015 inclusion and exclusion criteria were clearly shown for plasma samples but not for tissue samples whereas, on the other hand Wang et al (2015) defined the inclusion and exclusion criteria for tissue samples but not for plasma.…”

“…In Spear et al 2015 inclusion and exclusion criteria were clearly shown for plasma samples but not for tissue samples whereas, on the other hand Wang et al (2015) defined the inclusion and exclusion criteria for tissue samples but not for plasma. The clinical characteristics of case groups were reported in 16 studies (Boon et al 2011, Liao et al 2011, Kin et al 2012, Maegdefessel et al 2012a, 2012b, Biros et al 2014, Cheuk and Cheng 2014, Zampetaki et al 2014, Maegdefessel et al 2014, Pei et al 2015, Spear et al 2015, Wang et al 2015, Zhang et al 2015, Chan et al 2015, Busch et al 2016, Licholai et al 2016. From these studies only two did not report the clinical characteristics of the control groups (Maegdefessel et al 2012a(Maegdefessel et al , 2012b) and in Maegdefessel et al (2014), even though the clinical characteristics were reported for control plasma samples, they were not reported for control tissue samples.…”

“…From these studies only two did not report the clinical characteristics of the control groups (Maegdefessel et al 2012a(Maegdefessel et al , 2012b) and in Maegdefessel et al (2014), even though the clinical characteristics were reported for control plasma samples, they were not reported for control tissue samples. In addition, cases and control groups were age and gender matched in 16 studies (Boon et al 2011, Jones et al 2011, Liao et al 2011, Kin et al 2012, Pahl et al 2012, Patuzzo et al 2012, Biros et al 2014, Ikonomidis et al 2013, Zampetaki et al 2014, Chan et al 2015, Pei et al 2015, Wang et al 2015, Zhang et al 2015, Busch et al 2016, Licholai et al 2016, Wu et al 2016. For three studies we could not determine whether the gender of cases and control groups for tissue samples match since the gender was not clearly stated for the control groups (Maegdefessel et al 2012a(Maegdefessel et al , 2012b(Maegdefessel et al , 2014.…”

“…The final question refers to the reproducibility and robustness of the data presented. Eight had a positive score (Liao et al 2011, Kin et al 2012 as the tests were repeated more than once and for one study this could not be determined as although we managed to obtain access to the article we were not able to view the appendix which may actually this data (Licholai et al 2016). An analytical representation of the quality assessment results is shown in Supplemental Material 4.…”

“…Hsa-miR-133a-3p genes are known to be expressed in cardiac and skeletal muscles (McCarthy 2008, van Rooij et al 2008. A pathway enrichment analysis by Licholai et al (2016) has shown that miR-133 is possibly associated with smooth muscle cell pathway and extracellular matrix pathway by targeting SP1 and COL1A1 genes. Furthermore, miR-133a also regulates MMP-14 in human lung cancer where increased expression of this miRNA decreases the protein expression (Xu and Wang 2013).…”