Integrated ordination of miRNA and mRNA expression profiles [mRNA]

Several studies have shown that negative and positive miRNA-mRNA correlations are symmetrically distributed. While negative correlations are consistent with a faster degradation of miRNA targets, the presence of positive correlations suggests bidirectional interactions between the two classes of molecules. However, a comprehensive study of miRNA and mRNA correlations is lacking. A homogeneous map of miRNA and mRNA relationships was obtained by multidimensional scaling (MDS) applied to a single matrix including both heterologous (miRNA-mRNA) and homologous (miRNA-miRNA and mRNA-mRNA) correlations. Liver samples were obtained from 4 patients with HBV-associated acute liver failure (ALF), 10 liver donors and 7 subjects who underwent hepatic resection for liver angioma.