Expressão de microRNAS no cérebro e espermatozoides de ratos SHR: avaliação preliminar para estudos futuros sobre herança epigenética da esquizofrenia

• Autor(a) principal: Cantao, Isabelle Hernandez [UNIFESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNIFESP
• Texto Completo: https://sucupira.capes.gov.br/sucupira/public/consultas/coleta/trabalhoConclusao/viewTrabalhoConclusao.jsf?popup=true&id_trabalho=8543556; https://repositorio.unifesp.br/handle/11600/59750
• topic: Schizophrenia; miRNA; SHR; Rats; miRNA; Espermatozoide; SHR; rato; esquizofrenia

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a psychiatric disorder that affects around 1% of world population. Despite the great number of studies about the etiology of SCZ and the identification of genetic alterations related to this disorder, a definitive and clear genetic basis for SCZ has not been established so far. Considering that SCZ is influenced by environmental aspects, the influence of epigenetic mechanisms in the manifestation and development of SCZ started to be considered. However, longitudinal clinical and molecular studies that follow SCZ development before its manifestation are complex, not to mention the obvious unfeasibility of getting brain samples. Thus, animal models, such as the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHR), have been used to explore some aspects of SCZ. In the present study we investigated the expression of miRNAs previously reported as dysregulated in patients diagnosed with psychiatric disorders in the brain and sperm of SHR rats. For this, the hippocampus, the pre-frontal cortex and the sperm of adult SHR and control rats were collected and submitted to miRNA and DNA extraction. The expression of miRNAs was analyzed by RT-qPCR. The copy number of LINE-1 retrotransposon was also analyzed. The results showed that miR-34a, miR-18a and miR-134 were dysregulated in the brain and in the sperm of SHR rats when compared with control rats. miR-132, miRN219a, miR-106b and miR-182 were dysregulated only in the sperm of the SHR rats. No alterations in LINE-1 copy number was observed in SHR sperm, pre-frontal cortex and hippocampus when compared with control rats. These data suggest that SHR rats can be a useful model to study the relationship of miRNA with SCZ and that the alterations in the expression of SCZ-related miRNA observed in SHR rats might be transferred to the descendants.