miRNA profiling in hPASMC isolated from normal and PAH patients

To identify dysregulated miRNAs in PAH HPASMC, we compared the miRNA expression profiles between normal and PAH HPASMC using the RT2 miRNA PCR Array System. Total RNA was isolated using a miRNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen, Valencia, CA) and treated with an RNase-Free DNase Set (Qiagen). After quantification with Nanodrop 2000 spectrophotometer (ThermoScientific, Rockford, IL), miRNAs were reversely transcribed using a RT2 miRNA First Strand Kit (SABiosciences, Frederick, MD). The RT2 miRNA PCR Array System (SABiosciences) was used to study miRNA profiling in normal and PAH HPASMC. U6, SNORD44, SNORD47 and SNORD48 were used as internal controls for the profiling. HPASMC isolated from oe normal donor (C128, as control), one IPAH patient (B157), one PAH patient with Eisenmenger’s syndrome (CC-008) and one PAH patient with Scleroderma (CCF-004) were used for miRNA PCR array study. Data is normalized to the control sample. Three independent sample preparations were used for this study.