TITLE:
Effect of Aging and Sex on Circulating MicroRNAs in Humans
AUTHORS:
Shuji Sawada, Takayuki Akimoto, Masaki Takahashi, Ryota Sakurai, Shoji Shinkai, Takashi Ushida, Yoshinori Fujiwara, Katsuhiko Suzuki
KEYWORDS:
miRNA, Serum, Aging, Sex Difference, Biomarker
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Aging Research,
Vol.3 No.2,
May
19,
2014
ABSTRACT: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been reported as potentially being useful
biomarkers for various diseases including cancer, diabetes mellitus, heart
disease, neurological disease and age-related diseases. In the present study,
we aimed to determine whether the expression levels of circulating miRNAs in
serum were changed with aging or sex. Serum samples from seven elderly males
(69.86 ± 1.77 years old) and females (72.43 ± 1.49 years old), and six young
males (26.17 ± 0.83 years old) and females (23.17 ± 1.52 years old) were obtained
from the subject’s forearm at rest. The expression levels of circulating
miR-146a and miR-20a in serum were determined by real-time TaqMan PCR. There
were no differences in the expression levels of miR-146a between all groups.
There was a significant interaction in this main effect where miR-20a levels
were significantly lower in elderly male subjects when compared to young male
subjects with no difference observed in young or elderly female subjects (p = 0.004 and p = 0.971, respectively). These results suggest that not all the
miRNAs in the circulation are influenced by the effect of aging, but only some
miRNAs may be selectively changed by the effect of aging.