Journal
RNA BIOLOGY
Volume 8, Issue 5, Pages 829-838Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
DOI: 10.4161/rna.8.5.16043
Keywords
mesenchymal stem cell; miR-20a; osteogenic differentiation; BMP signaling pathway; co-regulatory pattern
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [30871428]
- Double Hundred Project of Shenzhen
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is a complex process, which is regulated by various factors including microRNAs. Our preliminary data showed that the expression of endogenous miR-20a was increased during the course of osteogenic differentiation. Simultaneously, the expression of osteoblast markers and regulators BMP2, BMP4, Runx2, Osx, OCN and OPN was also elevated whereas adipocyte markers PPAR gamma and osteoblast antagonist, Bambi and Crim1, were downregulated, thereby suggesting that miR-20a plays an important role in regulating osteoblast differentiation. To validate this hypothesis, we tested its effects on osteogenic differentiation by introducing miR-20a mimics and lentiviral-miR20a-expression vectors into hMSCs. We showed that miR-20a promoted osteogenic differentiation by the upregulation of BMP/Runx2 signaling. We performed bioinformatics analysis and predicted that PPAR gamma, Bambi and Crim1 would be potential targets of miR-20a. PPAR gamma is a negative regulator of BMP/Runx2 signaling whereas Bambi or Crim1 are antagonists of the BMP pathway. Furthermore, we confirmed that all these molecules were indeed the targets of miR-20a by luciferase reporter, quantitative RT-PCR and western blot assays. Similarly to miR-20a overexpression, the osteogenesis was enhanced by the silence of PPAR gamma, Bambi or Crim1 by specific siRNAs. Taken together, for the first time, we demonstrated that miR-20a promoted the osteogenesis of hMSCs in a co-regulatory pattern by targeting PPAR gamma, Bambi and Crim1, the negative regulators of BMP signaling.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available