Here, we studied global miRNA expression in gluteal and abdominal adipose tissues in 70 human subjects in the MolOBB study (41 healthy controls and 29 metabolic syndrome cases, see Materials and Methods), with the objective of characterising the global miRNA molecular phenotypic profile in these two adipose depots. To our knowledge, this is the first time a comprehensive miRNA characterisation has been carried out in human gluteal and abdominal adipose tissue depots. We have assessed whether miRNAs are differentially expressed between abdominal and gluteal adipose tissue and to what extent the expression of miRNAs are associated with metabolic syndrome in each tissue type. To determine the extent to which miRNA expression in adipose tissue is associated with predicted mRNA targets, indicating a potential a gene-regulatory activity of the miRNA, we have also carried out global mRNA expression profiling in both tissue types in the same set of subjects. Finally, all subject in the study were SNP genotyped and miRNA eQTL analysis was carried out, in order to assess whether miRNA expression levels are genetically driven.
