Characterization of blood and vaginal fluid using a microRNA expression profiling method
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Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding sequences that function in maintaining tissue and cell specificity. These characteristics have made them ideal candidiates for body fluid identification. This study aims to determine if miRNA expression profiles can be used to differentiate vaginal fluid samples collected at different time points within a single menstrual cycle, as well as miRNA markers that can be used to differentiate menstrual blood from peripheral blood. The HTG EdgeSeq® workflow was used to prepare and analyze the samples. The HTG Reveal software was used to analyze the expression profiles of these samples by conducting pairwise comparisons. The top differentially expressed probes based on “rawP” values were assessed for observable trends in their fold changes. Potential miRNA markers for vaginal fluid, peripheral blood, and menstrual blood in this study and those from existing literature were identified. Week 3 appears to be the most different among the vaginal fluid only samples within the menstrual cycle. Minimal differences were observed between the samples of Weeks 1 and 2, thus the identified differentially expressed probes could not be reliably used to differentiate all timepoints in the menstrual cycle. MiR-200b-3p is the only probe out of four possible menstrual blood markers with supporting evidence from the data collected in this study and in literature. Several other miRNAs (miR-106a, miR-144-3p, miR-16-5p, miR-25-3p, miR-451a, miR-486-5p, and miR-93-5p) show potential as blood markers without distinguishing between peripheral and menstrual blood. Possible miRNA markers for vaginal fluid in general were also determined: miR-124-3p, miR-128-1-5, mir-147b, miR-193b-5p, miR-5585-3p, and miR-612.