Figure 5.

Obesity enhances the release of circulating exosomal miRNA-122-5p triggered by ARDS in mice. (a) Heatmap of circulating exosomal miRNAs in lean control and obese mice in the setting of ARDS showed the differences in the serum exosomal miRNA profiles. n = 9 mice per group, and each sample containing serum from 3 mice was analyzed in duplicate. (b) Among the miRNA transcripts with high signals (signal >500) that were significantly changed, miR-122-5p was the top-ranked different miRNA. qPCR identified that the levels of miR-122-5p were highly elevated in the circulation (c), lungs (d), and adipose tissue (e), whereas decreased in liver tissue (f) of obese mice under ARDS circumstance. (g) The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) annotation system identified the TGF-β signaling pathway among the significant canonical pathways of miRNA-122-5p (P = 0.0016). n = 5 mice per group analyzed in three replicated independent experiments (c)–(e). The relative miRNA level was normalized to U6 snRNA as an internal control. Data are presented as mean ± S.D. Significant differences are shown by ∗P < 0.05, ∗∗P < 0.01, and ∗∗∗P < 0.001.