Identification and Analysis of Human Sex-biased MicroRNAs / 基因组蛋白质组与生物信息学报·英文版

Sex differences are widely observed under various circumstances ranging from physiological processes to therapeutic responses, and a myriad of sex-biased genes have been identified. In recent years, transcriptomic datasets of microRNAs (miRNAs), an important class of non-coding RNAs, become increasingly accessible. However, comprehensive analysis of sex difference in miRNA expression has not been performed. Here, we identified the differentially-expressed miRNAs between males and females by examining the transcriptomic datasets available in public databases and conducted a systemic analysis of their biological characteristics. Consequently, we identified 73 female-biased miRNAs (FmiRs) and 163 male-biased miRNAs (MmiRs) across four tissues including brain, colorectal mucosa, peripheral blood, and cord blood. Our results suggest that compared to FmiRs, MmiRs tend to be clustered in the human genome and exhibit higher evolutionary rate, higher expression tissue specificity, and lower disease spectrum width. In addition, functional enrichment analysis of miRNAs show that FmiR genes are significantly associated with metabolism process and cell cycle process, whereas MmiR genes tend to be enriched for functions like histone modification and circadian rhythm. In all, the identification and analysis of sex-biased miRNAs together could provide new insights into the biological differences between females and males and facilitate the exploration of sex-biased disease susceptibility and therapy.

The Evaluation of Semicircular Canal Function in Children with Secretory Otitis Media / 听力学及言语疾病杂志

Objective To investigate the vestibular functions ,especially the semicircular canal function in children with secretory otitis media (SOM ) .Methods A total of 24 children with SOM of median age of 8 .5 years had effusion that lasted about 3 to18 months ,compared with 12 children without effusion in the middle ear with the median age of 7 .9 years .The two groups received pure tone audiometry ,acoustic immitance and semicircular canal functions ,including the saccadic test ,the tracking test ,the gaze test and spontaneous nystagmus test .Results The 24 children with SOM had conductive hearing loss ,including 11 mild cases and 13 moderate case .The 12 children without SOM had the normal hearing .There were significant differences in semicircular canal functions between the two groups (8/24 & 0/12 , P<0 .05) .Age ,genders ,hearing -loss degrees and vertigo were not the significant factors which affected the semicircular canal function .Conclusion The function of semicircular canal was affected in children with SOM ,but the mechanisms were still not clear .