miR-381-3p Cooperated With Hes1 to Regulate the Proliferation and Differentiation of Retinal Progenitor Cells

Jiajing Wang; Na Sun; Yahan Ju; Ni Ni; Zhimin Tang; Dandan Zhang; Xiaochan Dai; Moxin Chen; Yiqi Wang; Ping Gu; Jing Ji

doi:10.3389/fcell.2022.853215

miR-381-3p Cooperated With Hes1 to Regulate the Proliferation and Differentiation of Retinal Progenitor Cells

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2022 Feb 25:10:853215. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2022.853215. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jiajing Wang^{1

2}, Na Sun^{2

3}, Yahan Ju^{1

2}, Ni Ni^{1

2}, Zhimin Tang^{1

2}, Dandan Zhang^{1

2}, Xiaochan Dai⁴, Moxin Chen^{1

2}, Yiqi Wang^{1

2}, Ping Gu^{1

2}, Jing Ji^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ophthalmology, Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
² Shanghai Key Laboratory of Orbital Diseases and Ocular Oncology, Shanghai, China.
³ Department of Ophthalmology, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Department of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) transplantation has become a promising therapy for retinal degeneration, which is a major kind of ocular diseases causing blindness. Since RPCs have limited proliferation and differentiation abilities toward retinal neurons, it is urgent to resolve these problems. MicroRNAs have been reported to have vital effects on stem cell fate. In our study, the data showed that overexpression of miR-381-3p repressed Hes1 expression, which promoted RPCs differentiation, especially toward neuronal cells, and inhibited RPCs proliferation. Knockdown of endogenous miR-381-3p increased Hes1 expression to inhibit RPCs differentiation and promote proliferation. In addition, a luciferase assay demonstrated that miR-381-3p directly targeted the Hes1 3' untranslated region (UTR). Taken together, our study demonstrated that miR-381-3p regulated RPCs proliferation and differentiation by targeting Hes1, which provides an experimental basis of RPCs transplantation therapy for retinal degeneration.

Keywords: Hes1; MiR-381-3p; differentiation; proliferation; retinal progenitor cells.