Fig. 3

The imbalance between miRNA maturation products in HD brain. Side-by-side comparison of selected primary, precursor, and mature miRNA transcripts in the striatum (A) and matching cortex (B) of HD patients and Controls. In all assays, we used probe-specific miRNA quantitative RT-PCRs. See Additional file 3, Fig. S4 for normalization procedures. Heatmaps of fold change are shown, where HD samples were normalized to the average of Controls set as onefold for each miRNA species. C Overview of candidate miRNA primary/precursor inhibition scores (ratios) in the striatum and matching cortex of HD patients and Controls. Heatmaps were generated using corresponding qRT-PCR data. Significant differences were observed for only a subset of tested miRNAs. D Overview of miRNA precursor/mature inhibition scores (ratios) in the striatum and cortex of HD patients and Controls. Here, all the tested miRNAs were significantly affected in the striatum. Statistics: Ctl vs. HD as a group was calculated using a Mann–Whitney test. Ctl vs. HD stages was calculated using an analysis of covariance followed by the Kruskal–Wallis multiple comparison test. Significant fold changes (colour-coded and bold) are provided for each group. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; ****P < 0.0001. Trends (P < 0.1) are shown as well as the # sign. Abbreviations: Ctl, Controls; HD, Huntington’s disease; HD2, Vonsattel grade 2; HD3, Vonsattel grade 3; HD4, Vonsattel grade 4