Hypoxia stimulates proliferation of rat neural stem/progenitor cells by regulating mir-21: an in vitro study

In this study, we found that cell proliferation is promoted by hypoxia, and accompanied by increasing expression of miR-21 in cultured rat NSPCs. Moreover, qRT-PCR analysis indicated that expression of miR-21 increases in a time-dependent manner. 5-Bromo-2-deoxyUridine (BrdU) staining and flow cytometry showed that overexpression of miR-21 further promoted proliferation of NSPCs in the presence of hypoxia. Knocking down of miR-21 partially abolished the proliferative effect of hypoxia treatment on cell proliferation. Western blot demonstrated that overexpression of miR-21 enhanced expression of cyclin D1, while knock down of miR-21 suppressed cyclin D1 expression under hypoxic conditions. Furthermore, overexpression of miR-21 also increased levels of p-AKT. These results demonstrate that miR-21 plays a role in regulating the proliferation of cultured rat NSPCs undergoing hypoxia, and the activation of the PI-3-K signaling pathway might be one of the underlying mechanisms. These findings prompt a molecular study investigating potential mechanisms for stem cell treatment of cerebral ischemia.

Source: Neuroscience Letters - October 3, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research