Down-regulated placental miR-21 contributes to preeclampsia through targeting RASA1

ABSTRACT

Human placenta was obtained from early onset preeclampsia, late onset preeclampsia, and their gestational age-matched normal pregnancy. Using RT-qPCR, western blot, and immunohistochemistry, it was demonstrated that miR-21 expressions were significantly decreased in preeclampsia while RASA1 were increased. Suppression of miR-21 in placental HTR-8/SVneo cells, remarkably upregulated RASA1, decreased proliferation, inhibited invasion, and promoted apoptosis of trophoblast cells, while overexpression of miR-21 alleviated these effects. Dual-luciferase reporter assays revealed RASA1 to be a direct target of miR-21 in trophoblast cells. miR-21 may serve key roles in the development of preeclampsia by targeting RASA1.

KEYWORDS:

• Preeclampsia
• miRNA-21
• RASA1
• placenta
• pregnancy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Shandong Province Key Technology Research and Development Program (2017G006023); Zibo City Key Research and Development Program (2018kj010137) and Zibo City Key Research and Development Program (2020ZC010094).