MicroRNA-877-5p promotes osteoblast differentiation by targeting EIF4G2 expression

Stimulating bone formation potentially suggests therapeutics for orthopedic diseases including osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Osteoblasts are key to bone remodeling because they act as the only bone-forming cells. miR-877-5p has a chondrocyte-improving function in osteoarthritis, but its effect on osteoblast differentiation is unknown. Here, miR-877-5p-mediated osteoblast differentiation was studied. Real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction was performed to measure miR-877-5p expression during the osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells. Osteoblast markers, including alkaline phosphatase (ALP), collagen type I a1 chain, and osteopontin, were measured and detected by alizarin red staining and ALP staining. Potential targets of miR-877-5p were predicted from three different algorithms: starBase ( http://starbase.sysu.edu.cn/ ), PITA ( http://genie.weizmann.ac.il/pubs/mir07/mir07_data.html ), and miRanda ( http://www.microrna.org/microrna/home.do ). It was further verified by dual luciferase reporter gene assay. The experimental results found that miR-877-5p was upregulated during the osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells. Overexpression of miR-877-5p promoted osteogenic differentiation, which was characterized by increased cell mineralization, ALP activity, and osteogenesis-related gene expression. Knockdown of miR-877-5p produced the opposite result. Dual luciferase reporter gene assay showed that miR-877-5p directly targeted eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4γ2 (EIF4G2). Overexpression of EIF4G2 inhibited osteogenic differentiation and reversed the promoting effect of overexpression of miR-135-5p on osteogenic differentiation. These results indicate that miR-877-5p might have a therapeutic application related to its promotion of bone formation through targeting EIF4G2.