Objective: Shilajit is a pale-brown to blackish-brown organic mineral substance available from Himalayan rocks. We demonstrated that in type I obese humans, shilajit supplementation significantly ...upregulated extracellular matrix (ECM)-related genes in the skeletal muscle. Such an effect was highly synergistic with exercise. The present study (clinicaltrials.gov NCT02762032) aimed to evaluate the effects of shilajit supplementation on skin gene expression profile and microperfusion in healthy adult females.
Methods: The study design comprised six total study visits including a baseline visit (V1) and a final 14-week visit (V6) following oral shilajit supplementation (125 or 250 mg bid). A skin biopsy of the left inner upper arm of each subject was collected at visit 2 and visit 6 for gene expression profiling using Affymetrix Clariom™ D Assay. Skin perfusion was determined by MATLAB processing of dermascopic images. Transcriptome data were normalized and subjected to statistical analysis. The differentially regulated genes were subjected to Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA
®
). The expression of the differentially regulated genes identified by IPA
®
were verified using real-time polymerase
chain reaction (RT-PCR).
Results: Supplementation with shilajit for 14 weeks was not associated with any reported adverse effect within this period. At a higher dose (250 mg bid), shilajit improved skin perfusion when compared to baseline or the placebo. Pathway analysis identified shilajit-inducible genes relevant to endothelial cell migration, growth of blood vessels, and ECM which were validated by quantitative real-time polymerase
chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis.
Conclusions: This work provides maiden evidence demonstrating that oral shilajit supplementation in adult healthy women induced genes relevant to endothelial cell migration and growth of blood vessels. Shilajit supplementation improved skin microperfusion.
Regenerative medicine is a new scientific and medical discipline for developing regenerative capabilities to restore function to damaged cells, tissues, and organs. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a novel ...class of small regulatory RNAs that have emerged as post-transcriptional gene silencers. miRNAs drive tissue regeneration, and their dysregulation may disrupt it. For this reason they represent a new direction in regenerative medicine strategies. In this chapter, we review the role of miRNAs in regenerative medicine with special emphasis on miRNA biogenesis.
MicroRNAs are short noncoding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Like DNA methylation and histone modification, miRNA activity epigenetically regulates the ...expression of various protein-encoding genes. To date over 10,000 miRNAs have been identified, of which 940 are human. It is estimated that more than 60% of human protein-coding genes harbor miRNA target sites and thus are potentially regulated by these molecules. Mounting evidence suggests that miRNAs are involved in cell reprogramming and therefore their aberrant expression is associated with pathophysiological processes such as cancer and other disease states.
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