Role Of Exosome Associated Mirna In Ipf

Background: Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a lung degenerative interstitial lung disease with poor prognosis and a bad quality of life once the diagnosis is made. In the last decade many features of the disease have been investigated to better understand the pathological steps that lead to the onset of the disease and, moreover, different types of biomarkers have been tested to find valid diagnostic, prognostic and therapy response predictive ones. In the complexity of IPF, a decisive boost has been given to microRNA investigation. Aim: We compared the expression of 5 miRNA (-21;-210;-26a;Let-7d;-16), which we suppose have a role in the pathogenesis of IPF: between 61 patients (51M; 68±6.33 ys; FVC 70,8±16%; DLCO 48±13) and 15 healthy control matched for age, with the aim of evaluating a possible different expression of it. Method: Starting from serum sample, the total RNA containing miRNA was extracted from exosomes, by using the classic technique of TRIzol reagent. The analysis was performed by western blot after retro transcription. The relative expression levels for the target miRNA were normalized against miR-222 and calculated using the comparative 2−DDCt method Result: Our study revealed let-7d (0.64 vs 3.84) and miR-16 (0.82 vs 3) were significative down-regulated (p value < 0.05), while no other difference rose among the others. Conclusion: Our result shows that mi-RNA seems have a role in pathogenesis of IPF, in particular let-7d and -16, both knows as anti-fibrotic, were down regulated in patients with IPF. Those findings could help the individuation of previously unknown key players in the pathophysiology of IPF and, most interestingly, more specific target for the development of effective medications.