RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 MicroRNA Profiling in Chinese Patients with Primary Sjögren Syndrome Reveals Elevated miRNA-181a in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells JF The Journal of Rheumatology JO J Rheumatol FD The Journal of Rheumatology SP jrheum.131154 DO 10.3899/jrheum.131154 A1 Linyi Peng A1 Weizhi Ma A1 Fan Yi A1 Yun-Jiao Yang A1 Wei Lin A1 Hua Chen A1 Xuan Zhang A1 Li-He Zhang A1 Fengchun Zhang A1 Quan Du YR 2014 UL http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2014/08/09/jrheum.131154.abstract AB Objective Characterized by chronic inflammation, dysfunction of exocrine glands, and systemic autoimmunity, primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS) is a common autoimmune disease in elderly women. Our study was performed to explore the potential involvement of microRNA (miRNA) in Chinese patients with pSS. Methods Using microarrays, miRNA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) was profiled in 4 female patients with pSS and 3 healthy participants, followed by a large-scale study of 33 patients and 10 healthy individuals. Compared to the healthy participants, 202 miRNA were upregulated and 180 were downregulated in the patients with pSS. To confirm this finding, a set of regulated miRNA was further examined in a large patient group, using quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR assays. Results MiR-181a was the miRNA that most profoundly differed between patients with pSS and healthy individuals; however, similar miRNA-181a expression profiles were found in groups with different disease phenotypes. Together, these observations suggested that an elevated miRNA-181a level is a general phenomenon in Chinese patients with pSS. Conclusion In addition to the elevated miR-181a levels, our study led to the speculation that elevated miR-181a levels in the PBMC of these patients compromise the maturation of B cells, enabling them to recognize and attack autoantigens and resulting in disease phenotypes. In addition to the regulation of human miRNA, many virus-derived miRNA were unexpectedly upregulated in the patients with pSS, suggesting that viral infection of PBMC plays a role in this disease.