Table 1.
Demographic and clinical characteristics of the study samples (n = 40 in each sample).
Figure 1.
BDNF serum levels and its related miRNAs.
(A) BDNF concentrations in patients and controls. The serum levels of BDNF in the patients with depression (n = 40; 20.05±5.98 ng/ml) were significantly decreased compared with those of the healthy controls (n = 40; 25.22±5.17 ng/ml). (B) The targeting site on BDNF-mRNA-3′UTR by miR-182, which was aligned with the mRNA-3′UTR of human bdnf gene with the nucleotide position. Vertical lines indicate identity.
Figure 2.
miR-132/182 regulating BDNF expression.
(A, B) Detection of BDNF by western blotting. SH-SY5Y cells were treated with miR-182 or miR-132, the results showed that BDNF expression in the miR-182- or miR-132-treated cultures was much lower than that of negative control miRNA cultures. *P<0.05, miR-182- or miR-132-treated cultures vs. control cultures. Relative values for BDNF vs. Actin are indicated in Fig.2B.
Figure 3.
Serum miR-132 and miR-182 levels detected by real-time PCR.
(A, B) Serum miR-132 or miR-182 levels in patients with depression and their controls, respectively. Real-time PCR showed that serum miR-132 (or miR-182) levels in depressed patients (n = 40) were much higher than those in healthy controls (n = 40, P<0.01).
Figure 4.
Relationship between levels of serum BDNF and its related miRNAs.
(A) A significant negative correlation (Spearman rs = −0.307, P = 0.006) between the serum BDNF and miR-132 levels in depressed patients (n = 40) and controls (n = 40). (B) No significant correlation (Spearman rs = 0.098, P = 0.385) was found between the serum BDNF and miR-182 levels in depressed patients (n = 40) and controls (n = 40).
Figure 5.
Relationship between serum levels of BDNF-related miRNAs and SDS score.
(A) A significant negative correlation (Pearson r = −0.427, P = 7.75E-05) was found between serum BDNF levels and SDS score in depressed patients (n = 40) and controls (n = 40). (B) An obvious positive correlation (Spearman rs = 0.347, P = 0.002) was revealed between the serum miR-132 levels and SDS score in patients with depression (n = 40) and controls (N = 40). (C) There was an obvious positive correlation (Spearman rs = 0.242, P = 0.030) between the serum miR-182 levels and SDS score in depressed patients (n = 40) and healthy controls (N = 40).
Table 2.
The sequences of chemically synthesized miRNAa.