miRNA-seq from white blood cells of responders and non-responders (weight loss) to a hypocaloric mediterranean diet

The objective of the present study is to identify early miRNAomic biomarkers of response to a hypocaloric mediterranean diet (RESMENA study). The RESMENA study (“REducción del Síndrome Metabólico en Navarra”) is a Spanish, randomized controlled and longitudinal trial over a six-month period that aimed to improve the parameters related with Metabolic Syndrome, including body fat composition, biochemistry, inflammation, or oxidative stress. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Navarra (ref.065/2009). All the participants (n=96) were Caucasian and gave written informed consent for participation in agreement with the Declaration of Helsinki (www.clinicaltrials.gov; NTC01087086). Participants were categorized into “High Responders” (HR), when weight loss was >8%, and “Low Responders” (LR) when weight loss was <8%. White blood cells were separated from whole blood by centrifugation at 1,100 g at 4ºC for 15 min. Total RNA from WBCs isolated before the nutritional intervention was extracted using TRIzol reagent. miRNAs from white blood cells of 6 LR and 5 HR were sequenced using Illumina’s miRNA-Seq following the standardized protocol. miRNAs from white blood cells of two groups of volunteers: 6 low responders (LR) and 5 high responsers (HR) were sequenced using Illumina’s miRNA-Seq protocol. Samples called C06, C26, C48, R03, R20 and R26 are the low responders (LR), whereas C16, C31, C38, R31 and R36 are the high responders (HR).