Background and Objectives. Thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) is a silent disease characterised by aortic wall expansion and vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) dedifferentiation from contractile to synthetic phenotype. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) involved in VSMC phenotypic regulation could be considered as potential diagnostic indicators and therapeutic targets of TAA. In vitro studies show that lncRNAs CARMN, LUCAT1, MALAT1, and SMILR are associated with the VSMC phenotypic state. Our aim was to test if these lncRNAs are dysregulated during TAA formation in clinical patient samples. Materials and Methods. Relative expression of lncRNAs CARMN, LUCAT1, SMILR, and MALAT1 was tested in clinical aortic tissue and blood plasma samples from TAA and non-TAA patients using the qRT-PCR method. The Mann–Whitney test was used to compare ΔCt values between the study groups. ROC curve analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic value of plasma lncRNAs. Results. We found significantly reduced CARMN () and LUCAT1 () expression in aortic tissue samples from TAA patients. Relative expression of MALAT1 () and SMILR () did not differ in aortic tissue between the TAA and non-TAA groups. Expression of both LUCAT1 and SMILR was significantly decreased in TAA patients’ blood plasma compared to controls ( and , respectively). However, only LUCAT1 showed the ability to discriminate aneurysmal disease in patients’ blood plasma (, , ). Conclusions. We have shown that the expression of lncRNAs CARMN and LUCAT1 is reduced in dilated aortic tissue and that the LUCAT1 and SMILR expression is lower in the blood plasma of TAA patients. Decreased LUCAT1 expression in TAA patients’ blood plasma may have diagnostic potential in discriminating patients with TAA.

中文翻译：

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胸主动脉瘤中的长链非编码 RNA CARMN、LUCAT1、SMILR 和 MALAT1：临床样本中生物标志物的验证。

背景和目标。胸主动脉瘤 (TAA) 是一种以主动脉壁扩张和血管平滑肌细胞 (VSMC) 从收缩表型到合成表型去分化为特征的无声疾病。参与 VSMC 表型调控的长链非编码 RNA (lncRNA) 可被视为 TAA 的潜在诊断指标和治疗靶点。体外研究表明，lncRNA CARMN、LUCAT1、MALAT1 和 SMILR 与 VSMC 表型状态相关。我们的目的是测试这些 lncRNA 在临床患者样本中 TAA 形成过程中是否失调。材料和方法. 使用 qRT-PCR 方法在来自 TAA 和非 TAA 患者的临床主动脉组织和血浆样本中检测 lncRNA CARMN、LUCAT1、SMILR 和 MALAT1 的相对表达。Mann-Whitney检验用于比较研究组之间的ΔCt值。进行 ROC 曲线分析以评估血浆 lncRNA 的诊断价值。结果。我们发现 CARMN 显着降低（)和 LUCAT1 ()在来自 TAA 患者的主动脉组织样本中的表达。MALAT1 的相对表达 ()和微笑 ()在 TAA 组和非 TAA 组之间的主动脉组织中没有差异。与对照组相比，TAA 患者血浆中 LUCAT1 和 SMILR 的表达均显着降低（和，分别）。然而，只有 LUCAT1 显示出区分患者血浆中动脉瘤疾病的能力。, , ）。 结论。我们已经证明 lncRNA CARMN 和 LUCAT1 的表达在扩张的主动脉组织中降低，并且 LUCAT1 和 SMILR 在 TAA 患者的血浆中的表达较低。TAA 患者血浆中 LUCAT1 表达降低可能具有鉴别 TAA 患者的诊断潜力。