case-control status and cis- located genetic variants (eQTLs). Another potential reason for finding only a few miRNAs that were significantly associated with mRNAs, is that only a subset (248) of the miRNAs that were profiled have predicted conserved mRNA targets. Thus, the miRNA-mRNA analysis is dependent on the accuracy and limitations of the target prediction algorithms currently available. Furthermore, we note that the three significant miRNA eQTLs detected in each tissue were not found to be associated with metabolic syndrome case-control status. However, these miRNAs eQTLs may well be associated with other (obesity-related) traits not included in the current study, which would be of interest to investigate in future studies.
