INCREASING OF MICRORNA-137AS A BIOMARKER FOR ENCEPHALOPATHY

Abstract

Encephalopathy is an alteration of the mental status due to brain injury or metabolic derangement. The encephalopathy from the direct brain injury in several conditions increases the mortality rate and lead to dementia, seizures and coma. On the other hand, the encephalopathy from metabolic abnormality is reversible after the correction of the metabolic defect. Therefore, an indicator representing encephalopathy of the direct brain injury is necessary. MicroRNA-137 (miR-137) is a small RNA that specifically found in brain, and its function is to control brain development and cell proliferation. The objective is to investigate the association of miR-137 and encephalopathy. In this study, we selected 2 models associated with encephalopathy including sepsis and uremia, the encephalopathy of direct ischemic brain injury and from metabolic defect, respectively. C57BL/6 mice were separated in 3 groups; sham control (n=8), septic encephalopathy (cecal ligation and puncture model) (n=8) and uremia (bilateral nephrectomy model) (n=9). Sera were collected for miRNA isolation after 24-hour. The miR-137 expression was determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The results showed both of encephalopathy models have elevated of miR-137 expression compared to normal controls. In conclusion, the miR-137 expression might be a potential indicator for diagnosis encephalopathy-related disease, however, could not differentiate between direct brain injury and metabolic encephalopathy.