Maternally expressed gene 3 regulates retinal neovascularization in retinopathy of prematurity

The mouse model of oxygen induced retinopathy is suitable for the study of various retinal neovascularization diseases,including retinopathy of prematurity.The maternally expressed gene 3(MEG3)has been demonstrated to have an inhibitory effect on diabetic retinopathy.In this study,we investigated the role of MEG3 overexpression in oxygen-induced retinopathy in mice.The results showed that MEG3 overexpression effectively inhibited the production of retinal neovascularization in oxygen-induced retinopathy mice.It acts by down-regulating the expression of phosphoinositide 3-kinase,serine/threonine kinase,and vascular endothelial growth factor and pro-inflammatory factors.MEG3 overexpression lentivirus has a future as a new method for the clinical treatment of retinopathy of prematurity.The animal experiments were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University,China(approval No.2016PS074K)on February 25,2016.

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor protects bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells from hypoxia/ischemia-induced apoptosis by regulating lncRNA

Objective:This research was performed to explore the effect of macrophage migration inhibitory factor(MIF)on the apoptosis of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(BMSCs)in ischemia and hypoxia environments.Methods:The cell viability of BMSCs incubated under hypoxia/ischemia(H/I)conditions with or without pretreatment with MIF or triglycidyl isocyanurate(TGIC)was detected using cell counting kit-8(CCK-8)analysis.Plasmids containing long noncoding RNA(lncRNA)maternally expressed gene 3(MEG3)orβ-catenin small interfering RNA(siRNA)were used to overexpress or downregulate the corresponding gene,and the p53 signaling pathway was activated by pretreatment with TGIC.The influences of MIF,overexpression of lncRNA MEG3,activation of the p53 signaling pathway,and silencing ofβ-catenin on H/I-induced apoptosis of BMSCs were revealed by western blotting,flow cytometry,and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase(TdT)-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling(TUNEL)staining.Results:From the results of CCK-8 assay,western blotting,and flow cytometry,pretreatment with MIF significantly decreased the H/I-induced apoptosis of BMSCs.This effect was inhibited when lncRNA MEG3 was overexpressed by plasmids containing MEG3.The p53 signaling pathway was activated by TGIC,andβ-catenin was silenced by siRNA.From western blot results,the expression levels ofβ-catenin in the nucleus and phosphorylated p53(p-p53)were downregulated and upregulated,respectively,when the lncRNA MEG3 was overexpressed.Through flow cytometry,MIF was also shown to significantly alleviate the increased reactive oxygen species(ROS)level of BMSCs caused by H/I.Conclusions:In summary,we conclude that MIF protected BMSCs from H/I-induced apoptosis by downregulating the lncRNA MEG3/p53 signaling pathway,activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway,and decreasing ROS levels.