Expression of microRNAs (133b and 138) and Correlation with Echocardiographic Parameters in Patients with Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy

• Published in: MicroRNA (Shariqah, United Arab Emirates) Vol. 9; no. 2; p. 112
• Main Authors: de Araújo Melo, Leiliandry, da Silveira, Maria Mariana Barros Melo, de Vasconcellos Piscoya, Isabelle Cecília, Brasileiro, Victor Arthur Eulálio, Farias, Isabela Cristina Cordeiro, do Ó, Kleyton Palmeira, Roncal, Carlos Guilhermo Piscoya, Lima, Raul Emídio, Filho, Dário Celestino Sobral, Vasconcelos, Luydson Richardson Silva
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United Arab Emirates 2020
• Subjects: Cardiomyopathy, Alcoholic - diagnosis; Cardiomyopathy, Alcoholic - diagnostic imaging; Cardiomyopathy, Alcoholic - genetics; Down-Regulation - genetics; Echocardiography; Female; Genetic Association Studies; Genetic Markers - genetics; Heart Atria - anatomy & histology; Humans; Male; MicroRNAs - genetics; Middle Aged; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; Stroke Volume - genetics; Stroke Volume - physiology; biomarkers; echocardiography; microRNA; fibrosis; Alcoholic cardiomyopathy; cardiomegaly
• ISSN: 2211-5374

Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy (ACM) is a disease with a difficult diagnosis. The real mechanisms related to its pathophysiology are not fully understood. The aims of this study were to investigate whether miR-133b and miR-138 could be associated with ACM. Forty-four patients were included comprising 24 with ACM and 20 with cardiomyopathies of different etiologies (control group). Real-time PCR was performed to verify the relative expression among the studied groups. In the statistical analysis, the quantitative variables t-student Mann- Whitney and correlation of Pearson tests were carried out, while the qualitative variable comprised the chi-square test, with p<0.05 being considered statistically significant. There was no association between clinical and sociodemographic characteristics of the groups. The patients with ACM presented downregulation of miR-133b in comparison with control patients (p=0.004). On the other hand, for the miR-138, there was no association when the ACM group was compared with the control group. The presence of miR-133b among cases and controls was not correlated with any of the echocardiographic parameters. However, the increase in the expression of miR-138 was correlated with an increase in the ejection fraction (r=0.28, p=0.01) and the diameter of the left atrium (r=0.23, p=0.04) in patients with ACM. The downregulation of miR-133b might be a marker for ACM and, in addition, miR- 138 could be used to correlate the increase in ejection fraction with and normalization of the diameter of the left atrium diameter in patients with this disease.