title: miR-21 promotes the differentiation of hair follicle-derived neural crest stem cells into Schwann cells.
abstract: Hair follicle-derived neural crest stem cells can be induced to differentiate into Schwann cells in vivo and in vitro. However, the underlying regulatory mechanism during cell differentiation remains poorly understood. This study isolated neural crest stem cells from human hair follicles and induced them to differentiate into Schwann cells. Quantitative RT-PCR showed that microRNA (miR)-21 expression was gradually increased during the differentiation of neural crest stem cells into Schwann cells. After transfection with the miR-21 agonist (agomir-21), the differentiation capacity of neural crest stem cells was enhanced. By contrast, after transfection with the miR-21 antagonist (antagomir-21), the differentiation capacity was attenuated. Further study results showed that SOX-2 was an effective target of miR-21. Without compromising SOX2 mRNA expression, miR-21 can down-regulate SOX protein expression by binding to the 3'-UTR of miR-21 mRNA. Knocking out the SOX2 gene from the neural crest stem cells significantly reversed the antagomir-21 inhibition of neural crest stem cells differentiating into Schwann cells. The results suggest that miR-21 expression was increased during the differentiation of neural crest stem cells into Schwann cells and miR-21 promoted the differentiation through down-regulating SOX protein expression by binding to the 3'-UTR of SOX2 mRNA.
authors.affiliation: Hospital of Stomatology, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China.
authors.forename: Yuxin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.affiliation: China-Japan Union Hospital, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China.
authors.forename: Kaizhi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China.
authors.forename: Xuejuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Hospital of Stomatology, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China.
authors.forename: Tingting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Hospital of Stomatology, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China.
authors.forename: Baixiang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Hospital of Stomatology, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: Hospital of Stomatology, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China.
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: A
authors.affiliation: Hospital of Stomatology, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China.
authors.forename: Yanmin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
keywords: NSFC grant; SOX2; Schwann cells; hair follicle; microRNA; nerve regeneration; neural crest stem cells; neural regeneration; neurons; stem cells