Plasma miRNA as Potential Biomarkers for Hand-arm vibration disease

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have an essential function as post-transcriptional regulators in a variety of processes. miRNAs involvement and variation have mainly been studied in various disorders. Our study is the first to evaluate miRNA expression in hand-arm vibration disease (HAVD), an increasing occupational disease in China and the rest of the world. HAVD can cause injuries in microcirculation in the fingertip and induce the vibration-induced white finger (VWF), which can negatively affect patients’ quality of life. In this current study, we aimed to explore the mechanisms of development and progression of HAVD. We extracted total RNAs from the plasma of 24 metal workers and divided them into 3 groups: workers who reported VWF, workers exposed with occupational hand-transmitted vibration (HTV) without VWF, and control group. Genome-wide microarray gene chip was used to acknowledge the different miRNAs expression profiles. Functional analyses were operated to predict how those miRNAs work in VWF. 24 samples. The aim of this study was to examine whether olasma microRNAs is useful as a biomarker for Hand-arm vibration disease (HAVD).