The relationship of human tissue microRNAs with those from body fluids

Abstract

It is known that many microRNAs (miRNAs) stably exist in various body fluids, however, the relationship of body fluids miRNAs (BF-miRNAs) with those from tissues (T-miRNAs) remains largely unclear but is important for understanding the potential of BF-miRNAs to be biomarkers of specific diseases. Here by analyzing miRNA expression data from 40 human healthy tissues and those from human body fluids, including plasma, serum, urine, bile, and feces, we revealed a positive correlation between BF-miRNAs and T-miRNAs. Moreover, plasma and serum have the most communication with pericardium, adipose, liver, and spleen. Urinary miRNAs show the highest correlation with kidney miRNAs. For fecal miRNAs, gastrointestinal tract (colon, ileum, jejunum, small intestine, stomach, proximal colon, duodenum, and distal colon) miRNAs show the strongest correlation. Moreover, miRNA set enrichment analysis revealed that highly expressed fecal miRNAs are mostly associated with gastric and colon cancers etc. Additionally, bile miRNAs from suspected cholangiocarcinoma patients show a positive correlation with the cholangiocarcinoma tumor tissue. Interestingly, the relationship of BF-miRNAs and T-miRNAs shows significant sex differences. Serum miRNAs showed higher correlation with T-miRNAs in males, whereas plasma miRNAs and urine miRNAs showed higher correlations with T-miRNAs in females. These findings together indicate a potential role of BF-miRNAs as biomarkers to monitor corresponding specific human diseases.