Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 28, 2017; 23(44): 7888-7898
Published online Nov 28, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i44.7888
Circulating miR-125a but not miR-125b is decreased in active disease status and negatively correlates with disease severity as well as inflammatory cytokines in patients with Crohn’s disease
Chen-Ming Sun, Jie Wu, Heng Zhang, Gan Shi, Zhi-Tao Chen
Chen-Ming Sun, Jie Wu, Heng Zhang, Gan Shi, Zhi-Tao Chen, Department of Gastroenterology, The Central Hospital of Wuhan, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430014, Hubei Province, China
Author contributions: Sun CM and Wu J contributed to study conception and design; Sun CM contributed to data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation and writing of the article; Wu J, Zhang H, Shi G, and Chen ZT contributed to editing and reviewing the article; all authors read and approved the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of The Central Hospital of Wuhan, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided written informed consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Jie Wu, Department of Gastroenterology, The Central Hospital of Wuhan, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 26 Shengli Street, Wuhan 430014, Hubei Province, China. wujie@zxhospital.com
Telephone: +86-27-82211449 Fax: +86-27-82211449
Received: May 9, 2017
Peer-review started: May 12, 2017
First decision: June 5, 2017
Revised: September 12, 2017
Accepted: September 26, 2017
Article in press: September 26, 2017
Published online: November 28, 2017
Processing time: 201 Days and 8.6 Hours
Abstract
AIM

To determine the association of circulating miR-125a/b expression with the risk and disease severity of Crohn’s disease (CD), and with inflammatory cytokines.

METHODS

Plasma samples were collected from patients with active CD (A-CD), or CD in remission (R-CD) and from healthy controls (HCs). The levels of the inflammatory cytokines interleukin-17 (IL-17), tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The expression of miR-125a/b was assessed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).

RESULTS

Twenty-nine A-CD patients, 37 R-CD patients, and 37 HCs were included in the study. Plasma miR-125a expression was decreased in A-CD patients compared with that in R-CD patients (P < 0.001) and HCs (P < 0.001). miR-125a expression levels enabled the differentiation of A-CD from R-CD patients [area under curve (AUC) = 0.854] and from HCs (AUC = 0.780), whereas miR-125b expression did not. miR-125a was negatively correlated with C-reaction protein (CRP) (P = 0.017), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) (P = 0.026), Crohn’s disease activity index (CDAI) (P = 0.003), IL-17 (P = 0.015), and TNF-α (P = 0.004) in A-CD patients. Furthermore, miR-125a was negatively associated with CRP (P = 0.038) and CDAI (P = 0.021) in R-CD patients. Regarding miR-125b, no association with CRP, CDAI, IL-17, TNF-α, or IFN-γ was found in A-CD or in R-CD patients. miR-125a levels gradually increased in A-CD patients who achieved clinical remission (P = 0.009) after 3-mo treatment, whereas they remained unchanged among patients who failed to achieve remission. No changes in miR-125b expression were detected in remission or non-remission patients after treatment.

CONCLUSION

Circulating miR-125a but not miR-125b is decreased in patients with active disease status and negatively correlates with disease severity and inflammatory cytokines in patients with CD.

Keywords: Crohn’s disease; miR-125; Disease risk; Disease severity; Inflammatory cytokines

Core tip: This study aimed to investigate the association of circulating miR-125a/b expression with the risk and severity of Crohn’s disease (CD) and with inflammatory cytokines. Our results showed that miR-125a but not miR-125b is negatively correlated with the risk of active CD and disease severity and with inflammatory cytokines.