TY - JOUR AB - microRNAs (miRNAs) are important both in early cardiogenesis and in the process of heart maturation. The aim of this study was to determine the stage-specific expression of miRNAs in human fetal heart in order to identify valuable targets for further study of heart defects. Affymetrix microarrays were used to obtain miRNA expression profiles from human fetal heart tissue at 5, 7, 9 and 23 weeks of gestation. To identify differentially expressed miRNAs at each time-point, linear regression analysis by the R limma algorithm was employed. Hierarchical clustering analysis was conducted with Cluster 3.0 software. Gene Ontology analysis was carried out for miRNAs from different clusters. Commonalities in miRNA families and genomic localization were identified, and the differential expression of selected miRNAs from different clusters was verified by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). A total of 703 miRNAs were expressed in human fetal heart. Of these, 288 differentially expressed miRNAs represented 5 clusters with different expression trends. Several clustered miRNAs also shared classification within miRNA families or proximal genomic localization. qPCR confirmed the expression patterns of selected miRNAs. miRNAs within the 5 clusters were predicted to target genes vital for heart development and to be involved in cellular signaling pathways that affect heart structure formation and heart-associated cellular events. In conclusion, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first miRNA expression profiling study of human fetal heart tissue. The stage-specific expression of specific miRNAs suggests potential roles at distinct time-points during fetal heart development. AD - Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, P.R. China Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, P.R. China Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Ministry of Education, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, P.R. China Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, P.R. China AU - Zhou,Jizi AU - Dong,Xinran AU - Zhou,Qiongjie AU - Wang,Huijun AU - Qian,Yanyan AU - Tian,Weidong AU - Ma,Duan AU - Li,Xiaotian DA - 2014/05/01 DO - 10.3892/ijmm.2014.1691 EP - 1260 IS - 5 JO - Int J Mol Med KW - microRNA expression fetal heart development gene ontology analysis quantitative polymerase chain reaction PY - 2014 SN - 1107-3756 1791-244X SP - 1250 ST - microRNA expression profiling of heart tissue during fetal development T2 - International Journal of Molecular Medicine TI - microRNA expression profiling of heart tissue during fetal development UR - https://doi.org/10.3892/ijmm.2014.1691 VL - 33 ER -