Apoptosis-associated microRNAs are modulated in mouse, rat and human neural differentiation

BMC Genomics

Research Article

Clifford J Steer¹  Walter C Low²  Márcia M Aranha³  Susana Solá³  Joana M Xavier³  Daniela M Santos³  Cecília MP Rodrigues³ 

[1] Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, 55455, Minneapolis, MN, USA;Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development, University of Minnesota Medical School, 55455, Minneapolis, MN, USA;Department of Neurosurgery, University of Minnesota Medical School, 55455, Minneapolis, MN, USA;Stem Cell Institute, University of Minnesota Medical School, 55455, Minneapolis, MN, USA;Research Institute for Medicines and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon, 1649-003, Lisbon, Portugal;

关键词: Embryonic Stem Cell;    Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein;    Neural Stem Cell;    Neural Differentiation;    Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2164-11-514

 received in 2010-06-03, accepted in 2010-09-24,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMicroRNAs (miRs or miRNAs) regulate several biological processes in the cell. However, evidence for miRNAs that control the differentiation program of specific neural cell types has been elusive. Recently, we have shown that apoptosis-associated factors, such as p53 and caspases participate in the differentiation process of mouse neural stem (NS) cells. To identify apoptosis-associated miRNAs that might play a role in neuronal development, we performed global miRNA expression profiling experiments in NS cells. Next, we characterized the expression of proapoptotic miRNAs, including miR-16, let-7a and miR-34a in distinct models of neural differentiation, including mouse embryonic stem cells, PC12 and NT2N cells. In addition, the expression of antiapoptotic miR-19a and 20a was also evaluated.ResultsThe expression of miR-16, let-7a and miR-34a was consistently upregulated in neural differentiation models. In contrast, expression of miR-19a and miR-20a was downregulated in mouse NS cell differentiation. Importantly, differential expression of specific apoptosis-related miRNAs was not associated with increased cell death. Overexpression of miR-34a increased the proportion of postmitotic neurons of mouse NS cells.ConclusionsIn conclusion, the identification of miR-16, let-7a and miR-34a, whose expression patterns are conserved in mouse, rat and human neural differentiation, implicates these specific miRNAs in mammalian neuronal development. The results provide new insights into the regulation of neuronal differentiation by apoptosis-associated miRNAs.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Aranha et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.