Effects of a short‐term cold exposure on circulating microRNAs and metabolic parameters in healthy adult subjects

• Published in: Journal of cellular and molecular medicine Vol. 26; no. 2; pp. 548 - 562
• Main Authors: Thibonnier, Marc, Ghosh, Sujoy, Blanchard, Anne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.01.2022; Wiley Open Access; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Blood & organ donations; Blood pressure; Body fat; Body temperature; Cardiovascular Diseases - diagnosis; Circulating MicroRNA - blood; Circulating MicroRNA - genetics; circulating miRNAs; Cold; cold exposure; Cold Temperature; Cooling; Diabetes; Electrocardiography; Gene expression; Healthy Volunteers; Heart rate; Human subjects; Humans; Laboratories; Life Sciences; Liver diseases; Male; Metabolic Diseases - diagnosis; Metabolic disorders; metabolic parameters; Metabolites; MicroRNAs; MicroRNAs - genetics; miRNA; miRNAs/mRNAs co‐expression networks; Norepinephrine; Obesity; Original; Reproducibility of Results; Shivering - physiology; Skin; Variance analysis; miRNAs/mRNAs co-expression networks; metabolic parameters; cold exposure; circulating miRNAs; circulating miRNAs cold exposure metabolic parameters miRNAs/mRNAs co-expression networks
• ISSN: 1582-1838; 1582-4934; 1582-4934
• DOI: 10.1111/jcmm.17121

This discovery study investigated in healthy subjects whether a short‐term cold exposure may alter circulating microRNAs and metabolic parameters and if co‐expression networks between these factors could be identified. This open randomized crossover (cold vs no cold exposure) study with blind end‐ point evaluation was conducted at 1 center with 10 healthy adult male volunteers. Wearing a cooling vest perfused at 14°C for 2 h reduced the local skin temperature without triggering shivering, increased norepinephrine and blood pressure while decreasing copeptin, C‐peptide and heart rate. Circulating microRNAs measured before and after wearing the cooling vest twice (4 time points) identified 196 mature microRNAs with excellent reproducibility over 72 h. Significant correlations of microRNA expression with copeptin, norepinephrine and C‐peptide were found. A co‐expression‐based microRNA‐microRNA network, as well as microRNA pairs displaying differential correlation as a function of temperature were also detected. This study demonstrates that circulating miRNAs are differentially expressed and coregulated upon cold exposure in humans, supporting their use as predictive and dynamic biomarkers of cardio‐metabolic disorders.