miRNAs expression in the splenic CD4+ T cells and B cells isolated from MRL/lpr mice at 5 and 16 weeks of age. Mus musculus

To identify any differentially expressed miRNAs in the CD4+ T cells of lupus. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated as fine-tuning regulators controlling diverse biological processes at the level of posttranscriptional repression. Dysregulation of miRNAs has been described in various disease states, including human lupus. By using high-throughput microRNA profiling analysis, we identified that two miRNAs (miR-21 and miR-148a) overexpressed in CD4+ T cells from both lupus patients and lupus-prone MRL/lpr mice,which promote cell hypomethylation by repressing DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) expression. Overall design: We isolated the splenic CD4+ T cells and B cells from MRL/lpr mice at 5 and 16 weeks of age.Cells were collected and total RNA was extracted for the TaqMan® Low Density Assay v2.0 Normalization was performed with snoRNA202, reference snRNAs for mouse.Comparative real-time PCR was performed in triplicate, including no-template.controls. Relative expression was calculated with the comparative cycle threshold method.