P036 MicroRNA composition of colon crypt-top and crypt-bottom epithelial cells in Ulcerative Colitis
Inčiūraitė, R.(1);Juzėnas, S.(1,2);Ramonaitė, R.(1);Skiecevičienė, J.(1);
(1)Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Institute for Digestive Research, Kaunas, Lithuania;(2)Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology, Kiel, Germany
Background
Methods
Crypt-top and crypt-bottom CEpCs were sorted from biopsies of healthy control (HC) individuals (n=19), patients with aUC (n=17) and iUC (n=15) using FACS technology. Total RNA was extracted, small RNA sequencing libraries were prepared and sequenced using Illumina platform. Sequencing data was processed with nextflow-core/smrnaseq pipeline. Differential expression, correlation, miRNA-target interactions, gene set enrichment analyses and data visualisation were performed using Rstudio software packages DESeq2, isomiRs, multimiR, SingleCellExperiment, clusterProfiler, ReactomePA, etc. The miRNAs with an adjusted p-value < 0.05, and absolute value of log2 fold change > 1 were considered to be significantly differentially expressed.
Results
432 unique miRNAs were identified in samples. Changes of expression profile during aUC were identified in crypt-bottom CEpCs (compared to: (i) HC - 23 miRNAs, (ii) iUC - 22 miRNAs), as well as in crypt-top CEpCs (compared to: (i) HC - 28 miRNAs, (ii) iUC - 9 miRNAs). Also, 7 miRNAs were differentially expressed in crypt-bottom CEpCs and 3 miRNAs in crypt-top CEpCs during iUC compared to HC. 5 miRNAs were identified to be differentially expressed during aUC, 2 miRNAs - during iUC, and 11 miRNAs in HC when comparing expression profiles of crypt-bottom and crypt-bottom CEpCs. We also identified 16 and 14 miRNAs which expression in crypt-bottom and crypt-top CEpCs moderately (0.5<rho<0.7) correlated with Mayo score, respectively. Finally, the gene sets of pathways revealed the involvement of several miRNAs in biological processes and molecular functions associated with UC pathogenesis.
Conclusion
The changes of expression profiles of miRNAs revealed that crypt-top and crypt-bottom CEpCs respond to inflammation differently, the expression of these miRNAs reflects disease activity and modulates the processes of UC pathogenesis.
1 Lagerholm C, Davis S, Kinchen J, Chen HH, Alham NK, Ashley N, et al. Colonic epithelial cell diversity in health and inflammatory bowel disease. Nature. 2019;567:49-55.
2 Lee J, Park EJ, Yuki Y, Ahmad S, Mizuguchi K, Ishii KJ, et al. Profiles of microRNA networks in intestinal epithelial cells in a mouse model of colitis. Scientific Reports. 2016;5:1-13.