Objective: To study the effect of hsa-miR-654-5p in repressing bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) mRNA and protein in human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs), and explore its regulatory role in osteogenic differentiation of hBMSCs.
Methods: hBMSCs in the 4th passage were cultured for 16 h and transfected with hsa-miR-654-5p followed by further culture for 48 h. qRT-PCR and Western blotting were performed to detect the expressions of BMP2 mRNA and protein. Dual-luciferase?reporter gene assay was employed to examine the repression of the BMP2 gene.
Results: BMP2 mRNA and protein expressions were significantly down-regulated in hBMSCs with hsa-miR-654-5p overexpression. Dualluci-ferase reporter gene assay indicated that the predicted target site of BMP2 was repressed directly by hsa-miR-654-5p, but this repression did not occur at the mutant predicted target site of BMP2.
Conclusion: hsa-miR-654-5p can directly repress the mRNA and protein expressions of BMP2 by binding to a specific target site. The changes in hsa-miR-654-5p can play an important role in osteogenic differentiation regulation of hBMSCs.