简介：MicroRNAs(miRNAs)aredynamicallyregulatedduringneurodevelopment,yetfewreportshaveexaminedtheirroleinspinabifida.Inthisstudy,weusedanestablishedfetalratmodelofspinabifidainducedbyintragastricallyadministeringoliveoil-containingall-transretinoicacidtodamsonday10ofpregnancy.Damsthatreceivedintragastricadministrationofall-transretinoicacid-freeoliveoilservedascontrols.ThemiRNAexpressionprofileintheamnioticfluidofratsat20daysofpregnancywasanalyzedusinganmiRNAmicroarrayassay.Comparedwiththatincontrolfetuses,theexpressionofmiRNA-9,miRNA-124a,andmiRNA-138wassignificantlydecreased(>2-fold),whereastheexpressionofmiRNA-134wassignificantlyincreased(>4-fold)intheamnioticfluidofratswithfetusesmodelingspinabifida.Theseresultswerevalidatedusingreal-timequantitativereverse-transcriptionpolymerasechainreaction.HierarchicalclusteringanalysisofthemicroarraydatashowedthatthesedifferentiallyexpressedmiRNAscoulddistinguishfetusesmodelingspinabifidafromcontrolfetuses.OurbioinformaticsanalysissuggestedthatthesedifferentiallyexpressedmiRNAswereassociatedwithmanycytologicalpathways,includinganervoussystemdevelopmentsignalingpathway.ThesefindingsindicatethatfurtherstudiesarewarrantedexaminingtheroleofmiRNAsthroughtheirregulationofavarietyofcellfunctionalpathwaysinthepathogenesisofspinabifida.Suchstudiesmayprovidenoveltargetsfortheearlydiagnosisandtreatmentofspinabifida.