Few of the miRNAs found significant in at least one of the four analyses (i.e. association with metabolic syndrome case-control, with cis-located genetic variants, with predicted target mRNAs or with tissue type) were found to be common across analyses (Figure S6). In abdominal tissue, hsa-miR-520c-3p/520f, hsa-miR-519d and hsa-miR-183 were found to be associated with their target mRNAs, as well as being tissue differentially expressed. Hsa-miR-7-2* was found to be significantly associated with case-control status in abdominal tissue and also tissue-differentially expressed. In gluteal tissue, hsa-miR-27b, hsa-miR-196b and hsa-miR-28-5p were found to be both associated with their target mRNAs, as well as being tissue differentially expressed. We note that few miRNAs were found to be significant in multiple analyses, although this might be explained by the fact that the current study has limited power to detect miRNA associations with metabolic syndrome 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.
