Intrinsic features in microRNA transcriptomes link porcine visceral rather than subcutaneous adipose tissues to metabolic risk

PLoS One. 2013 Nov 6;8(11):e80041. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080041. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding small RNA ∼22 nucleotides in length that can regulate the expression of a wide range of coding genes at the post-transcriptional level. Visceral adipose tissues (VATs) and subcutaneous adipose tissues (SATs), the two main fat compartments in mammals, are anatomically, physiologically, metabolically, and clinically distinct. Various studies of adipose tissues have focused mainly on DNA methylation, and mRNA and protein expression, nonetheless little research sheds directly light on the miRNA transcriptome differences between these two distinct adipose tissue types. Here, we present a comprehensive investigation of miRNA transcriptomes across six variant porcine adipose tissues by small RNA-sequencing. We identified 219 known porcine miRNAs, 97 novel miRNA*s, and 124 miRNAs that are conserved to other mammals. A set of universally abundant miRNAs (i.e., miR-148a-3p, miR-143-3p, miR-27b-3p, miR-let-7a-1-5p, and miR-let-7f-5p) across the distinct adipose tissues was found. This set of miRNAs may play important housekeeping roles that are involved in adipogenesis. Clustering analysis indicated significant variations in miRNA expression between the VATs and SATs, and highlighted the role of the greater omentum in responding to potential metabolic risk because of the observed enrichment in this tissue of the immune- and inflammation-related miRNAs, such as the members of miR-17-92 cluster and miR-181 family. Differential expression of the miRNAs between the VATs and SATs, and miRNA target prediction analysis revealed that the VATs-specific enriched miRNAs were associated mainly with immune and inflammation responses. In summary, the differences of miRNA expression between the VATs and SATs revealed some of their intrinsic differences and indicated that the VATs might be closely associated with increased risk of metabolic disorders.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Intra-Abdominal Fat / metabolism*
  • Metabolic Diseases / genetics
  • Metabolic Diseases / metabolism
  • MicroRNAs / genetics*
  • Subcutaneous Fat / metabolism*
  • Swine
  • Transcriptome / genetics

Substances

  • MicroRNAs

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) (2013AA102502) to M.L., the Specialized Research Fund of Ministry of Agriculture of China (NYCYTX-009), the Project of Provincial Twelfth Five Years' Animal Breeding of Sichuan Province (2011YZGG15), and the National Special Foundation for Transgenic Species of China (2011ZX08006-003) to X.L. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.