Hypoxia Inhibits Cell Cycle Progression and Cell Proliferation in Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells via the miR-212-3p/MCM2 Axis

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences 2023-02, Vol.24 (3), p.2788
• Main Authors: Shi, Qixin, Li, Shaohua, Lyu, Qiang, Zhang, Shuai, Bai, Yungang, Ma, Jin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alzheimer's disease; Biosynthesis; Blood-brain barrier; Brain - metabolism; Cancer; Cell cycle; Cell Division; Cell growth; Cell Hypoxia - genetics; Cell proliferation; Cell Proliferation - genetics; Cerebrovascular diseases; Edema; Endothelial cells; Endothelial Cells - metabolism; Functional anatomy; Genes; High altitude; Humans; Hypoxia; Hypoxia - genetics; Hypoxia - metabolism; Kinases; MCM2; MicroRNAs; MicroRNAs - genetics; MicroRNAs - metabolism; Microvasculature; Minichromosome Maintenance Complex Component 2 - genetics; Minichromosome Maintenance Complex Component 2 - metabolism; miR-212-3p; proliferation; Protein expression; Proteins; Structure-function relationships; Transcriptomes
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms24032788

Hypoxia impairs blood-brain barrier (BBB) structure and function, causing pathophysiological changes in the context of stroke and high-altitude brain edema. Brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) are major structural and functional elements of the BBB, and their exact role in hypoxia remains unknown. Here, we first deciphered the molecular events that occur in BMECs under 24 h hypoxia by whole-transcriptome sequencing assay. We found that hypoxia inhibited BMEC cell cycle progression and proliferation and downregulated minichromosome maintenance complex component 2 ( ) expression. overexpression attenuated the inhibition of cell cycle progression and proliferation caused by hypoxia. Then, we predicted the upstream miRNAs of MCM2 through TargetScan and miRanDa and selected miR-212-3p, whose expression was significantly increased under hypoxia. Moreover, the miR-212-3p inhibitor attenuated the inhibition of cell cycle progression and cell proliferation caused by hypoxia by regulating MCM2. Taken together, these results suggest that the miR-212-3p/MCM2 axis plays an important role in BMECs under hypoxia and provide a potential target for the treatment of BBB disorder-related cerebrovascular disease.