MicroRNA-29A/PTEN Pathway Modulates Neurite Outgrowth In PC12 Cells

Growing evidence indicates that micro RNAs(mi RNAs) are important mediators of neurite growth. However, the affected signaling mechanisms are not clear. In the present study, we confirm that mi R-29 a increases neurite outgrowth by decreasing PTEN expression. First, we chose the mi RNAs, and determined the significant up-regulation of mi R-29 a, mi R-29 c, mi R-92 b in PC12 cells induced by nerve growth factor(NGF). In silico analysis of possible mi R-29 a targets, PTEN m RNA is proposed as a putative binding site for mi R-29 a. Subsequently, using a protein expression assay and luciferase reporter assay, we demonstrated that mi R-29 a could directly target the 3′-UTR(Untranslated Regions) of PTEN m RNA and result in down-expression of PTEN. By infecting PC12 cells with lentiviral p LKO-mi R-29 a or control, we also found that increasing levels of mi R-29 a markedly increased Akt phosphorylation levels, thereby promoting neurite outgrowth of PC12 cells. Together, our results determined that mi R-29 a is an important regulator of neurite outgrowth via targeting PTEN and has a promising therapeutic target for neural disease.