Oestrogen induces epithelial‐mesenchymal transition in endometriosis via circ_0004712/miR‐148a‐3p sponge function

Xin He, Nana Liu, Tianyi Mu, Dan Lu, Chanwei Jia, Shuyu Wang, Chenghong Yin, Lingyan Liu, Liying Zhou, Xiaowu Huang, Yanmin Ma
Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2020 · vol. 24(17) , pp. 9658–9666 · doi:10.1111/jcmm.15495 · PMID:32667746 · PMC7520264 · W3042984945
article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 13 in-corpus citations
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Oestrogen upregulates circ_0004712, which sponges miR-148a-3p to promote epithelial-mesenchymal transition in endometriosis, likely via the β-catenin pathway.

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Abstract

Abstract Endometriosis is a common, chronic gynaecologic disease affecting up to 10% of women in their reproductive age and leading to pain and infertility. Oestrogen (E 2 )‐induced epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) process has been considered as a key factor of endometriosis development. Recently, the dysregulated circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been discovered in endometriosis tissues. However, the molecular mechanism of circRNAs on the E 2 ‐induced EMT process in endometriosis is still unknown. Here, we demonstrated that circ_0004712 up‐regulated by E 2 treatment in endometrial epithelial cells. Knock‐down the expression of circ_0004712 significantly suppressed E 2 ‐induced cell migration activity. Meanwhile, we identified miR‐148a‐3p as a potential target miRNA of circ_0004712. Inhibited the expression of miR‐148a‐3p could recovered the effect of circ_0004712 knock‐down in E 2 ‐treated endometrial epithelial. Furthermore, Western blot assay showed that E 2 treatment could increase the expression and activity of β‐catenin, snail and N‐cadherin and reduce the expression of E‐cadherin. The expression and activity of β‐catenin pathway were recovered by circ_0004712 knock‐down or miR‐148a‐3p overexpression. Altogether, the results demonstrate that circ_0004712/miR‐148a‐3p plays an important role in E 2 ‐induced EMT process in the development of endometriosis, and the molecular mechanism may be associated with the β‐catenin pathway. This work highlighted the importance of circRNAs in the development of endometriosis and provide a new biomarker for diagnosis and therapies.

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Condition tags

endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Estrogens MicroRNAs RNA, Circular beta Catenin beta Catenin Cadherins Cadherins Cell Line, Tumor Cell Movement Cell Movement Endometriosis Epithelial Cells Epithelial Cells Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Estrogens Female Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic

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