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. 2023 Jun 29;24(13):10836.
doi: 10.3390/ijms241310836.

Evaluation of a Set of miRNAs in 26 Cases of Fatal Traumatic Brain Injuries

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Evaluation of a Set of miRNAs in 26 Cases of Fatal Traumatic Brain Injuries

Serena Bonin et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

In forensic medicine, identifying novel biomarkers for use as diagnostic tools to ascertain causes of death is challenging because of sample degradation. To that aim, a cohort (n = 26) of fatal traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) were tested for three candidate miRNAs (namely, miR-124-3p, miR-138-5p, and miR144-3p). For each case, three FFPE specimens (coup area (CA), contrecoup area (CCA), and the corpus callosum (CC)) were investigated, whereas the FFPE brain tissues of 45 subjects (deceased due to acute cardiovascular events) were used as controls. Relative quantification via the ∆∆Ct method returned significantly higher expression levels of the three candidate miRNAs (p < 0.01) in the TBI cases. No difference was detected in the expression levels of any miRNA investigated in the study among the CA, CCA, and CC. Furthermore, the analyzed miRNAs were unrelated to the TBI samples' post-mortem intervals (PMIs). On the contrary, has-miR-124-3p ahashsa-miR-144-3p were significantly correlated (p < 0.01) with the agonal time in TBI deaths. Since the RNA was highly degraded in autoptic FFPE tissues, it was impossible to analyze the mRNA targets of the miRNAs investigated in the present study, highlighting the necessity of standardizing pre-analytical processes even for autopsy tissues.

Keywords: FFPE tissues; RNA degradation; forensic autopsy; miRNA; traumatic brain injuries.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Box plot representing DV200 distribution between cases and controls. Kruskal–Wallis test.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Box plot representing DV100 (A) and DV200 (B) according to fixation time. Student’s t-test.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Box plot representing the expression levels of the analyzed miRNAs in cases and controls: (A) hsa-miR-124-3p, (B) hsa-miR-138-5p, and (C) hsa-miR-144-3p. Kruskal–Wallis test. Outliers were omitted from the graph.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Box plot representing the expression levels of the analyzed miRNAs in the coup area, corpus callosum, and contrecoup area: (A) hsa-miR-124-3p, (B) hsa-miR-138-5p, and (C) hsa-miR-144-3p. Kruskal–Wallis test. Outliers were omitted from the graph.

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