MicroRNA expression data from lymphoblastoid cell lines from patients with bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder (BD) (1% of the general population) is a major affective disorder characterized by recurrent manic and depressive episodes and associated with considerable burden and costs. Lithium (Li) is the first line treatment for relapse prevention in bipolar disorders with many patients who remain asymptomatic for several years (even decades). In addition, it is the only psychoactive drug that has demonstrated efficacy in suicide prevention. However a large proportion of patients is experiencing very high relapse rates (overall between 70 and 80% relapse, 2 years after a major episode). Li mechanism of action is rather complex and still not fully understood despite extensive studies. In order to explore potential lithium effects on global gene and miRNAs expression, we initiated a study in cell-lines from excellent responders (ER) and non-responders (NR) bipolar patients Briefly, long-term treatment response to lithium was evaluated using a validated scale “Retrospective Criteria of Long-Term Treatment Response in Research Subjects with Bipolar Disorder” , also known as the Alda scale. In our sample we analyzed dichotomous phenotypes for lithium response: patients with total score (TS) higher or equal to 7, characterized as ER; and patients with TS lower than 2, characterized as NR according to the literature. The study was performed in lymphoblastoid cell-lines (LCL) form BD patients recruited among French Centre Expert Bipolaire Network. LCLs from ER (n=4) and NR (n=4) were incubated for 4 days with or without LiCl (1mM) and microRNA profiling using Affymetrix™ microarrays was performed.