Monocyte subpopulations display disease-specific miRNA signatures depending on the subform of Spondyloarthropathy

Our data indicate for the first time that in different SpA subtypes, monocyte subpopulations bear disease-specific miRNA signatures that could be relevant for SpA diagnosis/differentiation process and may help to understand SpA etiopathology in the context of already known functions of monocyte subpopulations The aim of the study was to investigate the micro-RNA (miRNA) profiles in monocyte subpopulations (classical, intermediate and non-classical subpopulations) acquired from SpA patients or healthy individuals in search for prospective disease specific and/or disease subtype differentiating miRNA markers Monocyte subpopulations were isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) obtained from SpA patients or healthy donors. PBMC were isolated from EDTA-treated whole peripheral blood by the standard Pancoll human (Panbiotech, Aidenbach, Germany) density gradient centrifugation. PBMC were washed in PBS (Sigma-Aldrich, Saint Louis, USA) and then monocyte subsets (classical - CD14++CD16-, intermediate - CD14++CD16+ and non-classical - CD14+CD16++) were isolated using flow cytometry cell sorting