Differential Expression of MicroRNAs in Endarterectomy Specimens Taken from Patients with Asymptomatic and Symptomatic Carotid Plaques.

OBJECTIVE:Stroke and transient ischemic attacks are considered as clinical manifestations of atherosclerotic disease due to on-going vascular inflammation and finally atherothrombosis of the carotid arteries. MicroRNAs (miRNA/miR) are known to be involved in vascular inflammation and plaque destabilization. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression profile of selected miRNAs in endarterectomy specimen from carotid arteries that were taken from patients with asymptomatic and symptomatic atherosclerotic plaques. METHODS AND RESULTS:11 miRNAs were selected and their expression was analyzed using real-time RT-PCR. Therefore, samples were divided into three different groups. On the one hand we investigated the expression patterns from patients in asymptomatic (n = 14) and symptomatic (n = 10) plaques; on the other hand we took samples from normal configurated internal mammary arteries (n = 15). Out of these 11 targets we identified some miRNAs, which were up- or down-regulated in either one of the two groups. Interestingly, the expression of two miRNAs was significantly different between asymptomatic and symptomatic samples, namely miR-21 (P<0.01) and miR-143 (P<0.05). CONCLUSION:In the present study, we identified miRNA subtypes which showed different expression in endarterectomy specimen from patients with asymptomatic and symptomatic plaques, suggesting that these miRNAs correlated with advanced vascular inflammation and plaque stability. They may represent new therapeutic targets for vascular proliferative diseases such as atherosclerosis

Characterisation of onion (Allium cepa L.) by-products as food ingredients with antioxidant and antibrowning properties

10 páginas, 1 figura, 4 tablas.Processing and stabilising onion wastes (residues and surpluses of onion) could solve the environmental problem derived from a great onion wastes disposal. Moreover, obtaining stabilised onion by-products as natural antioxidant food ingredients could be advantageous to food industry, not only to improve the use of onion wastes but also to obtain new natural and functional ingredients. The aim of this study was to characterise onion by-products – juice, paste and bagasse – from two Spanish onion cultivars – ‘Figueres’ and ‘Recas’ – that have been stabilised by thermal treatments – freezing, pasteurisation and sterilisation – in order to evaluate the effect of the processing and stabilisation treatment on the bioactive composition, antioxidant activity and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) enzyme inhibition capacity. The results obtained triggered to choose one onion by-product offering better characteristics for its potential development as a food ingredient: source of antioxidant and antibrowning bioactive compounds. In this study it was shown that processing of ‘Recas’ onion wastes to obtain a paste (mixture content) and applying a mild pasteurisation were the best alternatives to obtain an interesting stabilised onion by-product with good antioxidant properties that made useful its use as functional food ingredient.This research was supported by funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology (AGL2003-09138-C04- 01). E. Roldán wishes to thank the Ministry of Education and Science for a Predoctoral Fellowship.Peer reviewe

Characteristics of the patients.

<p>Characteristics of the patients.</p

Real-time RT-PCR-analysis of miRNAs from carotid endarterectomy specimen from patients with asymptomatic and symptomatic plaques and from unaffected specimen from the internal mammary artery of healthy controls.

<p><b>(A) unchanged expression, (B) down-regulated expression vs. control and (C) up-regulate expression vs. control.</b> Snord44 was used as housekeeping control for normalization and the relative miRNA expression was calculated using the 2^-ΔΔCT method. con = control, asP = endarterectomy samples of asymptomatic plaques, sP = endarterectomy samples of symptomatic plaques. Data are presented as box plot with median (25^th/75^th percentiles) and whiskers (10^th/90^th percentiles). *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001 vs. con, ^#P<0.05, ^##P<0.01 vs. sP</p

Intersection graph shows miRNAs which were significantly up- (↑) or down-regulated (↓) in endarterectomy specimen from patients with asymptomatic and symptomatic plaques vs. unaffected specimen from the internal mammary artery of healthy controls.

<p>Significant different expression between asymptomatic and symptomatic plaque samples is indicated by an asterisk (*).</p

Target genes of the selected miRNAs and their impact on atherosclerosis.

<p>Target genes of the selected miRNAs and their impact on atherosclerosis.</p