Immunological aging impairs immune system protection in the body and is associated with high morbidity and mortality in aged people. Electroacupuncture (EA) has been proven to boost immunity. The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of EA on miRNA expression in the immune system of senescence-accelerated mouse P8 (SAMP8) mice. We utilized SAMP8 mice as an aging model and detected the altered expression of miRNAs in CD4⁺ T cells after EA stimulation by deep sequencing. Differentially expressed miRNAs in different groups were identified using Venn diagrams and functional analysis was performed. The effect of EA on the expression of the identified miRNAs was investigated in natural-aged C57BL/6J mice and the biological functions of miR-301a-3p and miR-181a-1-3p in CD4⁺ T cells were identified. Four upregulated and two downregulated miRNAs were identified in group I (EA-SAMP8 vs. shEA-SAMP8); 41 upregulated and nine downregulated miRNAs were identified in group II (EA-SAMP8 vs. SAMP8); 42 upregulated and eight downregulated miRNAs were identified in group III (shEA-SAMP8 vs. SAMP8). The three groups shared four overlapping differentially expressed miRNAs, and 10 miRNAs were only found in group II. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis of these 14 miRNAs revealed that their target genes were enriched in 229 “biological process” categories. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis showed that the targets were significantly mapped in 76 pathways. Furthermore, five significant pathways were involved in T cell differentiation. MiRNA-gene-net showed that miR-582-5p, miR-17-5p, miR-144-3p, miR-451a, and miR-301a-3p regulated the most important target genes in these pathways. The expression of these miRNAs was also regulated by EA in aged C57BL/6J mice. In addition, miR-301a-3p was involved in regulating the expression of inflammatory factors by mediating the differentiation of CD4⁺ T cells in C57BL/6J mice. Analysis of miRNAs indicated that EA contributes to maintaining the balance of CD4⁺ T cell differentiation in the aging immune system. These results provide novel insights into the effect of EA in immunological aging.

中文翻译：

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衰老加速小鼠中脾CD4 + T细胞对电针反应中差异表达的miRNA的鉴定。

免疫衰老削弱了机体对免疫系统的保护，并与高发病率和高死亡率相关。电针（EA）已被证明可以增强免疫力。这项研究的目的是确定EA对衰老加速小鼠P8（SAMP8）小鼠免疫系统中miRNA表达的影响。我们利用SAMP8小鼠作为衰老模型，并通过深度测序检测了EA刺激后CD4 ⁺ T细胞中miRNA的表达变化。使用Venn图鉴定不同组中差异表达的miRNA，并进行功能分析。在自然年龄的C57BL / 6J小鼠中研究了EA对鉴定的miRNA表达的影响，以及CD4 ⁺中miR-301a-3p和miR-181a-1-3p的生物学功能鉴定出T细胞。在第一组中鉴定出四个上调的miRNA和两个下调的miRNA（EA-SAMP8与shEA-SAMP8）；在第二组中鉴定出41个上调的miRNA和9个下调的miRNA（EA-SAMP8与SAMP8）；在第三组中鉴定出42个上调的miRNA和8个下调的miRNA（shEA-SAMP8与SAMP8）。这三组共享四个重叠的差异表达的miRNA，仅在II组中发现了10个miRNA。对这14个miRNA的基因本体学富集分析表明，它们的靶基因在229个“生物过程”类别中富集。京都基因与基因组百科全书通路分析表明，靶标在76条通路中有明显的定位。此外，T细胞分化涉及五个重要途径。MiRNA基因网络显示miR-582-5p，miR-17-5p，miR-144-3p，miR-451a，miR-301a-3p调节了这些途径中最重要的靶基因。这些miRNA的表达也受EA在老年C57BL / 6J小鼠中的调节。另外，miR-301a-3p通过介导CD4的分化参与调节炎症因子的表达。C57BL / 6J小鼠的⁺ T细胞。对miRNA的分析表明，EA在衰老的免疫系统中有助于维持CD4 ⁺ T细胞分化的平衡。这些结果为EA在免疫衰老中的作用提供了新颖的见解。