Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology (Jun 2021)

EGF-Induced miR-223 Modulates Goat Mammary Epithelial Cell Apoptosis and Inflammation via ISG15

  • Yue Zhang,
  • Yue Zhang,
  • Qiong Wu,
  • Qiong Wu,
  • Guanglin Niu,
  • Jidan Liu,
  • Fangjun Cao,
  • Xiaopeng An,
  • Binyun Cao

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2021.660933
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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The health of mammary gland is essential for lactation. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is reported to play an important role in lactation initiation and miR-223 is a conserved microRNA in anti-inflammation. In this study, EGF was found to induce a higher expression of miR-223 in goat mammary epithelial cell (gMEC). The downstream genes of miR-223 were screened by RNA sequencing, including Interferon-stimulated gene product 15 (ISG15), a pivotal immune responder, which was detected to be downregulated by EGF and miR-223. Due to the correlation between inflammation and apoptosis, the gMEC apoptosis modulated by EGF, miR-223, and ISG15 was investigated, and the protein expressions of Bcl-2/Bax, Caspase 3 and p53 were examined to evaluate the apoptosis of gMEC. The protein expressions of p-STAT3/STAT3, PR, FOXC1, and HOXA10, which had been shown to be related to inflammation, were detected to assess the inflammation of gMEC. This study provided a regulation axis, EGF/miR-223/ISG15, and illustrated its regulation to gMEC apoptosis and inflammation.

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