Expression of lncRNA NEAT1 in endometriosis and its biological functions in ectopic endometrial cells as mediated via miR-124-3p

Background Endometriosis (EM) is a gynecological disease that poses severe health risks to women, although its pathogenesis has yet to be fully elucidated. It has been shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are closely associated with EM initiation and have a role in the development of this disease. Previous studies exploring the expression of the lncRNA nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript 1 (NEAT1) have shown that this lncRNA functions as a tumor promoter in endometrial cancer. However, its exact mechanism of action in EM remains unclear.

This report was designed to illustrate the potential molecular mechanisms of lncRNA NEAT1 on EM.

Endometrial tissues were extracted from EM model rats and patients with EM. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was applied to detect the morphological changes that occurred in rats after construction of the model. Endometrial stromal cells (ESCs) were extracted from either ectopic endometrium (EC) or eutopic endometrium (EU) tissues from patients with EM. LncRNA NEAT1 and miR-124-3p expression in EM tissues and cells were subsequently evaluated by reverse transcription-quantitative (RT-q)PCR analysis. MTT assay, flow cytometric analysis, western blot assay and Transwell assay were then employed to examine the effect of NEAT1 and miR-124-3p on EC-ESC proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion, respectively. The targeted relationship between lncRNA NEAT1 and miR-124-3p was subsequently confirmed by dual-luciferase and co-transfection assays.

MiR-124-3p was identified as a target of NEAT1, and could be negatively regulated by NEAT1 in EC-ESCs. The expression level of NEAT1 was evidently increased, whereas that of miR-124-3p was decreased, in the EM in vivo model, EM tissues and EC-ESCs from patients with EM. The loss-of-function assays further established that silencing of NEAT1 could inhibit EC-ESC proliferation, migration, and invasion, but it led to the promotion of apoptosis via targeting miR-124-3p.

NEAT1 is significantly upregulated in EM, promoting malignant behavior in EM through targeting miR-124-3p expression. Similar content being viewed by others Data availability The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Change history 17 July 2025 A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-025-01651-w

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Typical Papanicolaou smear in tissues from EM rats at different periods (preestrus, estrus, postestrus and interestrus) (TIF 9609 KB) Rights and permissions Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. About this article Cite this article Yuan, D., Zhu, D., Yin, B. et al. Expression of lncRNA NEAT1 in endometriosis and its biological functions in ectopic endometrial cells as mediated via miR-124-3p. Genes Genom 44, 527–537 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-021-01184-y Received: Accepted: Published: Version of record: Issue date: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-021-01184-y