Effect of microRNA-27b-3p mimic treatment on human osteoarthritis fibroblast-like synoviocyte gene expression profiles

OBJECTIVE: To identify the changes in gene expression elicited by miR-27b-3p mimic transfection of human osteoarthritis (OA) primary fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) obtained from patients undergoing knee arthroplasty. Cells were cultured, and treated for 48 h with miR-27b-3p mimic or Cel-miR-39-3p control mimic. Total RNA was then extracted, and mRNA libraries were prepared using Illumina's TruSEQ stranded total RNA library preparation kit, pooled together, and sequenced on Illumina's NextSeq550. Overall design: Differential expression analysis was performed on the RNA-SEQ data obtained from 6 prepared libraries, where 3 were treated with the miR-27b-3p mimic and 3 with Cel-miR-39-3p control mimic. Subsequent pathway analysis identified the upregulation of ECM-related genes and pathways suggesting that miR-27b-3p is involved in the modulation of synovial ECM production.