MicroRNA profiling of human pancreas development.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs that play a fundamental role in regulation of gene expression affecting differentiation and development. In particular, miRNAs have been described to regulate genes important for pancreatic development and islet function. The aim of this study was to determine the miRNA expression signature during human pancreas development. We identified 212 miRNAs that were expressed throughout different gestational ages. From those, 4 miRNAs increased (group I), 35 miRNAs decreased (group II), during pancreatic development. The expression of the remaining 173 miRNAs was relatively constant throughout all assessed gestational ages. The determination of the specific group of miRNAs expressed in the human developing pancreas may further the understanding of gene expression regulation during this important process. In this study we define expression profiles of a total of 352 miRNAs for different stages of the pancreas development. Each TLDA card contains 2 endogenous controls which are present in 8 replicates each. Analysis of these controls allows calculating the intra- and inter-assay variation. Quantitative values (RQ) were calculated measuring the dCt between the Ct values of each miRNA and the Ct value of the small nucleolar RNU48 RNA.