Fig. 2

Exosomal miRNA profile differentiates patients with MS from healthy controls a Heat map of miRNA expression profile in the exosomes from HC and patients with MS. RNA was extracted from exosomes, which were isolated from the plasma of four HC and four patients with MS. A 3D-Gene Human miRNA Oligo chip (TORAY) was used for microarray analysis. MiRNAs with assigned identification number lower than 500 and signal intensity higher than 100 were selected and clustered based on the expression patterns of the eight samples. b Volcano plot of miRNAs in the exosomes. The expression difference of each miRNA between MS-exosome and HC-exosome is plotted on the X axis in log2 scale. p value of the difference by t test is plotted on the Y axis. Blue dots represent miRNAs with signal intensity higher than 100. Green dots represent miRNAs with identification number lower than 500 and signal intensity higher than 100. Four miRNAs pointed by arrows (red dots) were identified as candidate miRNAs upregulated in patients with MS. They were selected from green dots. c PC analysis for the MS and HC samples based on the miRNA expression profiles, using the same data as in b. d,e Quantification of the candidate miRNAs by RT-qPCR. The total amount of RNAs in the exosomes from the same amount of plasma was also examined. Based on the clinical information, patients with MS were divided into those with RRMS or SPMS and into those in remission or relapse phase. An unpaired t test was used for statistical analysis. Error bars represent the mean ± s.d. s.d. standard deviation, n.s. not significant, PC principal component, A.U. arbitrary unit, RT-qPCR reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction, RRMS relapsing-remitting MS, SPMS secondary-progressive MS