Identification of housekeeping genes for microRNA expression analysis in kidney tissues of Pkd1 deficient mouse models.
Sci Rep 2020;
10:231. [PMID:
31937827 PMCID:
PMC6959247 DOI:
10.1038/s41598-019-57112-4]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2019] [Accepted: 12/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Polycystic kidney disease is a complex clinical entity which comprises a group of genetic diseases that leads to renal cyst development. We evaluated the most suitable housekeeping genes for microRNA expression by RT-qPCR analyses of kidney tissues in Pkd1-deficient mouse models from a panel of five candidates genes (miR-20a, miR-25, miR-26a, miR-191 and U6) and 3 target genes (miR-17, miR-21 and let-7a) using samples from kidneys of cystic mice (Pkd1flox/flox:Nestincre, CY), non-cystic controls (Pkd1flox/flox, NC), Pkd1-haploinsufficient (Pkd1+/−, HT), wild-type controls (Pkd1+/+, WT), severely cystic mice (Pkd1V/V, SC), wild-type controls (CO). The stability of the candidate genes was investigated using NormFinder, GeNorm, BestKeeper, DataAssist, and RefFinder software packages and the comparative ΔCt method. The analyses identified miR-26a as the most stable housekeeping gene for all kidney samples, miR-20a for CY and NC, miR-20a and miR-26a for HT and WT, and miR-25 and miR-26a for SC and CO. Expression of miR-21 was upregulated in SC compared to CO and trends of miR-21 upregulation and let-7a downregulation in CY and HT compared to its control kidneys, when normalized by different combinations of miR-20a, miR-25 and miR-26a. Our findings established miR-20a, miR-25, and miR-26a as the best housekeeping genes for miRNA expression analyses by RT-qPCR in kidney tissues of Pkd1-deficient mouse models.
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