Journal
CELL DEATH & DISEASE
Volume 10, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/s41419-019-1888-3
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Ministry of Health [RF-2011-02346986]
- Italian Association for Cancer Research [18526]
- Arcobaleno Onlus
- Peretti Foundation
- University of Bologna Roberto and Cornelia Pallotti Legacy for cancer research
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Sex dimorphism in cell response to stress has previously been investigated by different research groups. This dimorphism could be at least in part accounted for by sex-biased expression of regulatory elements such as microRNAs (miRs). In order to spot previously unknown miR expression differences we took advantage of prior knowledge on specialized databases to identify X chromosome-encoded miRs potentially escaping X chromosome inactivation (XCI). MiR-548am-5p emerged as potentially XCI escaper and was experimentally verified to be significantly up-regulated in human XX primary dermal fibroblasts (DFs) compared to XY ones. Accordingly, miR-548am-5p target mRNAs, e.g. the transcript for Bax, was differently modulated in XX and XY DFs. Functional analyses indicated that XY DFs were more prone to mitochondria-mediated apoptosis than XX ones. Experimentally induced overexpression of miR548am-5p in XY cells by lentivirus vector transduction decreased apoptosis susceptibility, whereas its down-regulation in XX cells enhanced apoptosis susceptibility. These data indicate that this approach could be used to identify previously unreported sex-biased differences in miR expression and that a miR identified with this approach, miR548am-5p, can account for sex-dependent differences observed in the susceptibility to mitochondrial apoptosis of human DFs.
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