Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 516, Issue 1, 10 May 2012, Pages 79-84
Neuroscience Letters

MicroRNAs miR-144/144* and miR-16 in peripheral blood are potential biomarkers for naturalistic stress in healthy Japanese medical students

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2012.03.062Get rights and content

Abstract

Non-coding microRNAs (miRNAs) are suggested to serve fundamental roles in cellular stress responses and in coping with sudden environmental changes in experimental animals. We examined whether naturalistic stressor-responsive miRNAs were detectable in whole blood. Blood and saliva were collected between 16:00 and 17:00 from 10 healthy medical students (5 males and 5 females; aged 22.4 ± 0.8 years, mean ± SD) 7 weeks before, one day before, immediately after, and one week after a nationally administered examination for academic promotion. Samples obtained one week after the examination were used as baseline controls. State anxiety and salivary cortisol levels reached maximum levels the day before the examination. Eleven candidate miRNAs (miR-144, -144*, -16, -15a, -19a, -19b, -26b, -30b, -106b, -126, and -142-3p) were extracted using a human miRNA microarray, and quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR confirmed significant elevation of miR-144/144* and miR-16 levels immediately after finishing the examination. miR-16 levels in individual students were positively correlated with those of serum tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α measured immediately after the examination. Percentage changes in miR-144* and miR-16 levels from immediately after to one week after the examination were significantly correlated with percentage changes in circulating interferon-γ and/or TNF-α levels over the same time points. Our results suggest that miR-144/144* and miR-16 may constitute a part of an integrated response to naturalistic stressors in healthy young adults.

Highlights

► Naturalistic stressor-responsive miRNAs in blood were analyzed by a miRNA array. ► Healthy medical students taking an academic examination were subjected to this study. ► Microarray analysis extracted 11 candidate miRNAs responsive to the stressor. ► Real-time RT-PCR identified miR-144/144* and miR-16 as stress-responsive miRNAs. ► Changes in miR-144* and miR-16 levels were associated with TNF-α and IFN-γ responses.

Section snippets

Conflicts of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (Nos. 22390146 and 22659142 to K.R.).

References (24)

  • A. Bierhaus et al.

    A mechanism converting psychosocial stress into mononuclear cell activation

    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

    (2003)
  • Z.G. Cai et al.

    MicroRNAs are dynamically regulated and play an important role in LPS-induced lung injury

    Can. J. Physiol. Pharmacol.

    (2012)
  • Cited by (79)

    • Identification of candidate microRNA markers of endometriosis with the use of next-generation sequencing and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction

      2020, Fertility and Sterility
      Citation Excerpt :

      In the present study, we used individual plasma samples regardless of menstrual cycle phase. Furthermore, similarly to a recent study (30), we used stable reference miRNA instead of reference materials (RNU6 and miR-16) whose value has been challenged (34, 36). In the present study, care was taken to identify reference miRNAs that were abundantly expressed in the plasma with levels that were equivalent in women with endometriosis and control women.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text