MicroRNA-125a-3p overexpression promotes liver regeneration through targeting proline-rich acidic protein 1.

Xiaolin Wei, Zhiqing Yang, Hui Liu, Tengqian Tang, Peng Jiang, Xiaowu Li, Xiangde Liu

Annals of hepatology 2020 Jan - Feb

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Liver regeneration plays a valuable significance for hepatectomies, and is mainly attributed to hepatocyte proliferation. MicroRNA-125a-3p was reported to be highly associated with liver regeneration process. We studied the underlying mechanism of the functional role of miR-125a-3p in liver regeneration. The miR-125a-3p mimics and inhibitor vector were constructed and transfected into primary human liver HL-7702 cells, the transfected cell viability was detected using cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8). Cell cycle distribution was analyzed by flow cytometry. With Targetscan and OUGene prediction, the potential targets of miR-125 were verified by real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) and luciferase reporter assays in turn. The overexpression vector of proline-rich acidic protein 1 (PRAP1) was constructed and co-transfected with miR-125a-3p mimics into HL-7702 cells, detecting the changes of proliferative capacity and cell cycle distribution. Western blot and qPCR performed to analyze gene expressions. Overexpressed miR-125a-3p notably increased the hepatocyte viability at 48h, and decreased the number of G1 phase cells (p<0.05). However, miR-125a-3p inhibition suppressed the development of hepatocytes. PRAP1 was the target of miR-125a-3p. After co-transfection with PRAP1 vector, hepatocyte viability was decrease and the G1 phase cell number was increased (p<0.05). More importantly, overexpressed PRAP1 notably decreased the mRNA and protein levels of cyclin D1, cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) and cell division cycle 25A (CDC25A). The elevated miR-125a-3p positively correlated with hepatocyte viability and cell cycle progression due to the modulation of PRAP1, and miR-125a-3p may contribute to improving liver regeneration. Copyright © 2019 Fundación Clínica Médica Sur, A.C. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Citation

Xiaolin Wei, Zhiqing Yang, Hui Liu, Tengqian Tang, Peng Jiang, Xiaowu Li, Xiangde Liu. MicroRNA-125a-3p overexpression promotes liver regeneration through targeting proline-rich acidic protein 1. Annals of hepatology. 2020 Jan - Feb;19(1):99-106