Synergistic effects of miR-505-3p and uremic serum on the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the synergistic effects of miR-505-3p and uremic serum on the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in vitro. Serum samples from uremic patients and healthy controls were collected and treated with 10% serum. Meanwhile, the samples were divided into eight groups: uremic serum, healthy serum, uremic serum + miR-505-3p inhibitor, uremic serum + miR-505-3p negative control (NC), uremic serum + miR-505-3p mimics, healthy serum + miR-505-3p inhibitor, healthy serum + miR-505-3p NC, and healthy serum + miR-505-3p mimics. The proliferation and apoptosis of cells and protein expression of miR-505-3p in these groups were detected. Compared with the healthy serum group, the expression level of miR-505-3p in the uremic serum group was elevated, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Moreover, the uremic serum + miR-505-3p mimics group had the highest proliferation activity and the lowest rate of apoptosis, and the expression level of caspase-3 was significantly down-regulated (P<0.05), while that of PLK1 was noticeably up-regulated. Inhibition of miR-505-3p significantly reduced uremic serum-mediated proliferation of VSMCs (P<0.05), and the underlying mechanism was found to be associated with the miR-505-3p-caspase-3/PLK1 pathway.