MiR-542-3p drives renal fibrosis by targeting AGO1 in vivo and in vitro.

Aims: Renal fibrosis is the typical manifestation of progressive kidney disease and causes a severe threat to human health. Surging evidence has illustrated that miRNA plays a core role in the genesis and development of kidney fibrosis. MiR-542-3p has been testified to function as a facilitator in hepatic stellate cell activation and fibrosis. The purpose of study is to investigate the potential of miR-542-3p in renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis.

Materials And Methods: In this study, to establish renal fibrosis model in vivo and in vitro, we first conducted unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) on rats and high glucose (HG) treatment on the HK-2 cells. Histological and western blot analyses were utilized for assessment of renal fibrosis model. Luciferase reporter assay was carried out to explore the regulatory mechanism underlying miR-542-3p in renal fibrosis.

Key Findings: MiR-542-3p was found to be highly expressed in renal fibrosis. Functional experiments revealed that overexpression of miR-542-3p accelerated the deterioration of kidney fibrosis and inhibition of miR-542-3p led to the opposite result. Through the aid of bioinformatics tool, the speculated miR-542-3p binding sites were uncovered in the 3'UTR of argonaute RISC component 1 (AGO1). Mechanism study elucidated that AGO1 was a direct target of miR-542-3p. Lastly, our findings suggested that miR-542-3p played a promoting role in renal fibrosis via repression of AGO1.

Significance: We justified that miR-542-3p induced kidney fibrogenesis both in vivo and in vitro through targeting AGO1, unveiling that miR-542-3p might be a promising option for the treatment of patients with renal fibrosis.