microRNAs profiling of amniotic fluid: evidence of the synergism of microRNAs in directing axon guidance during development

Amniotic fluid is critical for the development of foetus, which provides the appropriate conditions for foetus growth. Besides its presumed traditional roles of providing movement place and protecting from crushing, amniotic fluid is considered to have more important roles in the nervous development of foetus respecting nervous related compositions and close contact with the skin of foetus. Peripheral nervous sensory system is the feeling basis for the body with neuritis anchoring on the surface of skin. The effect of amniotic fluid on the development of peripheral sensory nervous system is unknown. To disclose the relationship between amniotic fluid and peripheral sensory nervous system, we profiled microRNAs dynamic expression in amniotic fluid during the stages of E13, E15 and E17. The cluster analysis results showed that there were significantly two different expression profiles of microRNAs during this development stage. The followed informatics analysis results showed that these two groups of microRNAs synergistically regulate the axon guidance process. Axon tracing by fluorogold and co-labelled immunofluorescence results indicated that there was a direct interaction between amniotic fluid and peripheral sensory nervous system in axon guidance. Taken together, our work is helpful to understand the development of peripheral sensory nervous system of foetus. In this study, microRNAs in amniotic fluid cells were harvested at the stages of E13, E15 and E17 mice, then microRNAs expression profiles were performed on miRCURY microarrays. The following bioinformatics analysis, qRT-PCR and axon tracing results showed that there is a close relationship between microRNAs of amniotic fluid and the development of peripheral sensory nervous system.