Clinical Interventions in Aging (Jul 2020)
lncRNA GAS5 Is Upregulated in Osteoporosis and Downregulates miR-21 to Promote Apoptosis of Osteoclasts
Abstract
Chunlei Cong, Jun Tian, Tianqi Gao, Changlin Zhou, Yuxiang Wang, Xintao Cui, Liyu Zhu Department of Orthopedics, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province 150001, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Jun TianDepartment of Orthopedics, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province 150001, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail [email protected]: It has been reported that lncRNA growth arrest-specific transcript 5 (GAS5) interacts with miR-21, which plays critical roles in osteoporosis. The involvement of GAS5 in osteoporosis was investigated in this study.Methods: Expression levels of GAS5 and miR-21 in plasma of both osteoporosis patients and healthy controls were determined by RT-qPCR. Diagnostic values of GAS5 and miR-21 for osteoporosis were analyzed by ROC curve analysis. Overexpression experiments were used to assess the interactions between GAS5 and miR-21. The roles of GAS5 and miR-21 in the apoptosis of osteoclasts were investigated by cell apoptosis assay.Results: The present study aimed to investigate the roles of GAS5 in osteoporosis. The results showed that GAS5 was upregulated, while miR-21 was downregulated in plasma of osteoporosis patients. Expression levels of GAS5 and miR-21 were inversely correlated across plasma samples from osteoporosis patients but not the plasma samples from the controls. Altered expression of GAS5 and miR-21 distinguished osteoporosis patients from the controls. In osteoclasts, overexpression of GAS5 led to downregulation of miR-21, while overexpression of miR-21 did not affect the expression of GAS5. Overexpression of GAS5 led to promoted apoptosis of osteoclasts, while overexpression of miR-21 led to suppressed apoptosis of osteoclasts. In addition, overexpression of miR-21 attenuated the enhancing effects of overexpressing GAS5 on cell apoptosis.Conclusion: GAS5 is upregulated in osteoporosis and may downregulate miR-21 to promote the apoptosis of osteoclasts.Keywords: osteoporosis, GAS5, miR-21, apoptosis
