LncRNA TUG1 promotes proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cell and atherosclerosis through regulating miRNA-21/PTEN axis

F.-P. Li, D.-Q. Lin, L.-Y. Gao

Department of Heart and Vascular Surgery, Cardiovascular Disease Center, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China. aiquinma10@gmail.com

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• Cardiology

OBJECTIVE: Atherosclerosis is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but its mechanism of progression remained unclear. However, many long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently been implicated in different processes for cardiovascular disease. In this study, we mainly focused on the role of lncRNA TUG1 in atherosclerosis.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: qRT-PCR was used to detect the expression of lncRNA TUG1 in atherosclerosis patients and animal model. Moreover, the expression of TUG1 in vascular smooth muscle cell dysfunction model was also measured. Proliferation ability was tested by CCK-8 and cyclin D1 assay, through loss- and gain-of function approaches. Western-blot was used to measure the expression of PTEN, when TUG1 was in different levels.

RESULTS: We found that the lncRNA TUG1 was highly expressed in serum samples from 38 patients with atherosclerosis, compared with 24 healthy volunteers.  LncRNA TUG1 was dramatically upregulated in atherosclerotic plaques of ApoE-/- mice. We also found that the expression of TUG1 was upregulated in vascular smooth muscle cell injury model. Through loss- and gain-of function approaches, we showed that TUG1 promotes cell proliferation and induces apoptosis in vitro. What’s more, TUG1 expression level was reversely correlated with PTEN expression in patients with atherosclerosis. LncRNA TUG1 could compete with PTEN for miR-21 binding.

CONCLUSIONS: We found that lncRNA TUG1 was closely related to the progression of atherosclerosis, which could be a potential target for treating atherosclerosis.

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