MicroRNA-148b promotes proliferation of hair follicle cells by targeting NFAT5

MicroRNAs(miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs, are involved in many aspects of biological processes. Previous studies have indicated that mi RNAs are important for hair follicle development and growth. In our study, we found by q RT-PCR that miR-148 b was signi ficantly upregulated in sheep wool follicle bulbs in anagen phase compared with the telogen phase of the hair follicle cycle. Overexpression of miR-148 b promoted proliferation of both HHDPC and HHGMC. By using the TOPFlash system we demonstrated that miR-148 b could activate Wnt/β-catenin pathway and b-catenin, cyc D, c-jun and PPARD were consistently upregulated accordingly.Furthermore, transcript factor nuclear factor of activated T cells type 5(NFAT5) and Wnt10 b were predicted to be the target of mi R-148 b and this was substantiated using a Dual-Luciferase reporter system. Subsequently NFAT5 was further identi fied as the target of mi R-148 b using western blotting. These results were considered to indicate that mi R-148 b could activate the Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway by targeting NFAT5 to promote the proliferation of human hair follicle cells.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs, are involved in many aspects of biological processes. Previous studies have indicated that miRNAs are important for hair follicle development and growth. In our study, we found by qRT-PCR that miR-148b was significantly upregulated in sheep wool follicle bulbs in anagen phase compared with the telogen phase of the hair follicle cycle. Overexpression of miR-148b promoted proliferation of both HHDPC and HHGMC. By using the TOPFlash system we demonstrated that miR-148b could activate Wnt/beta-catenin pathway and beta-catenin, cycD, c-jun and PPARD were consistently upregulated accordingly. Furthermore, transcript factor nuclear factor of activated T cells type 5 (NFAT5) and Wnt10b were predicted to be the target of miR-148b and this was substantiated using a Dual-Luciferase reporter system. Subsequently NFAT5 was further identified as the target of miR-148b using western blotting. These results were considered to indicate that miR-148b could activate the Wnt/beta-catenin signal pathway by targeting NFAT5 to promote the proliferation of human hair follicle cells.