title: Vimentin regulates neuroplasticity in transected spinal cord rats associated with micRNA138.
abstract: Spinal cord injury (SCI) often results in motor disability concomitant with limit neuroplasticity; the underlying mechanism, however, is still unclear. This study established spinal cord transection rats model (T10), then performed cDNA microarray analysis and found that vimentin located in astrocytes was increased significantly in scar tissues after transection. To understand the role of vimentin and it's mechanism of regulation, RNA interference and luciferase assay were used. Vimentin knockdown in the scar tissues showed a significant improvement on locomotor function in hindlimbs, while vimentin overexpression exhibited an opposite effect. In vitro, vimentin downregulation or overexpression can effectively inhibit or increase astrogliosis, respectively. Moreover, by using biological informatics technology, we predicted that vimentin may be as the target of micRNA138 (miR-138), and confirmed that miR-138 could regulate vimentin by luciferase activity assay. The present results not only validated the exact role of vimentin in transected spinal cord, but also exhibited a novel regulation mechanism, in which miR-138 may regulate vimentin to promote neuroplasticity. It, therefore, provides a novel target for gene drug discovery based on miRNA-138 or vimentin for the treatment of SCI in the future clinic trial.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Kunming medical University, Kunming, 650031, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Bao-Jiang
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: You
authors.forename: Fei-Fei
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Mu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Yun-Hui
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ting-Hua
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001483:Base Sequence; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D014746:Vimentin / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: C581260:MIRN138 microRNA, rat; D035683:MicroRNAs; D014746:Vimentin