• Yuqing Huang, Songtao Tang, Cheng Huang, Jiyan Chen, Jie Li, Anping Cai, and Yingqing Feng.
• a Department of Cardiology , Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coronary Disease, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, South China University of Technology , Guangzhou , China.
• Clin. Exp. Hypertens. 2017 Jan 1; 39 (2): 119-125.

ObjectivesThe role of microRNAs (miRs,miRNAs) in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, as well as their diagnostic potential, has recently attracted much attention. However, target-organ damage (TOD) of hypertension remains a substantial challenge due to the lack of specific biomarkers. The present study was undertaken to identify and validate the potential of circulating miRs as novel biomarkers for TOD.MethodsWe assessed the expression levels of miR-29a, miR-29b, and miR-29c in 54 patients with untreated essential hypertension and 30 healthy individuals. All patients underwent two-dimensional echocardiography, office, and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to evaluate the expression of selected miRs. The expression level of miR-29a, miR-29b, and miR-29c correlations between blood pressure and echocardiography parameters were assessed using the Spearman correlation coefficient.ResultsWe observed higher expression levels of miR-29a (31.50 ± 3.90 vs 26.55 ± 1.74; p < 0.001), miR-29b (32.31 ± 2.85vs 27.21 ± 1.59; p < 0.001), and miR-29c (31.13 ± 3.42 vs 25.96 ± 1.88; p < 0.001) in hypertensive patients compared with healthy control individuals. In hypertension patients, 25 patients were left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), miR-29a (32.82 ± 4.06 vs 30.07 ± 3.68; p = 0.012), miR-29b (33.27 ± 2.84 vs 30.71 ± 3.04; p = 0.02), and miR-29c (32.33 ± 3.52 vs 29.55 ± 3.46; p = 0.005) in LVH patients compared with nLVH patients. We found miR-29a, miR-29b, and miR-29c expression levels showed significant positive correlations with office SBP (p = 0.579, p < 0.001; r = 0.576, p < 0.001; r = 0.598, p < 0.001), office DBP (p = 0.243, p = 0.026; r = 0.304, p = 0.005; r = 0.287, p = 0.008), office PP(r = 0.49, p < 0.001; r = 0.442, p < 0.001; r = 0.479, p < 0.001), 24 h mean SBP(p = 0.511, p < 0.001; r = 0.6, p < 0.001; r = 0.533, p < 0.001), 24 h mean DBP (p = 0. 304, p = 0.005; r = 0.283, p = 0.009; r = 0.340, p = 0.002), and 24 h mean PP (p = 0.385, p < 0.001; r = 0. 506, p < 0.001; r = 0.386, p < 0.001), respectively. The expression levels of miR-29a, miR-29b, and miR-29c were positively related to LVMI (r = 0.65, p < 0.001; r = 0.715, p < 0.001; r = 0.654, p < 0.001), respectively.ConclusionCirculating the miR-29 family may possibly represent potential non-invasive markers of hypertension and TOD in essential hypertensive patients.

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