You are currently viewing Investigation of microRNA expression and DNA repair gene transcripts in human oocytes and blastocysts.
A rolled newspaper - the left side facing forward. The name of the newspaper is "News" and the words "News" and "Events" are below that. The rubber band keeping the newspaper rolled together is thick and white. There is smaller writing on the newspaper which cannot be read.

Investigation of microRNA expression and DNA repair gene transcripts in human oocytes and blastocysts.

Abstract
The aim of the study is to investigate the regulation of DNA repair genes by microRNAs (miRNAs). miRNAs are short non-coding RNAs that regulate transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene silencing. Several miRNAs that are expressed during preimplantation embryo development have been shown or are predicted to target genes that regulate cell cycle checkpoints and DNA repair in response to DNA damage.

This study compares the expression level of 20 miRNAs and 9 target transcripts involved in DNA repair. The statistical significance of differential miRNA expression between oocytes and blastocysts was determined by t test analysis using the GraphPad Prism v6 software. The possible regulatory roles of miRNAs on their target messenger RNAs (mRNAs) were analysed using a Pearson correlation test.
This study shows for the first time that several miRNAs are expressed in human oocytes and blastocysts that target key genes involved in DNA repair and cell cycle checkpoints. Blastocysts exhibited statistically significant lower expression levels for the majority of miRNAs compared to oocytes (p < 0.05). Correlation analyses showed that there was both inverse and direct association between miRNAs and their target mRNAs.