Expression Profiles Analysis and Functional Characterization of MicroRNA-660 in Skeletal Muscle Differentiation

MicroRNA are a series of small non-coding RNAs that have emerged as critical regulators of skeletal muscle development. Here, we concentrated on the function of miR-660 during bovine skeletal myogenesis from our previous high-throughput sequencing results, then analyzed its expression profiles and characterized related functional roles. Overexpression of miR-660 significantly attenuated myogenic differentiation of C2C12 cells, whereas miR-660 inhibition enhanced C2C12 differentiation. Dual-Luciferase Reporter Assay went for demonstrating that miR-660 directly targeted the 3'-UTR of Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factor 12 (ARHGEF-12). Furthermore, we found an inverse relationship between the expression of miR-660 and ARHGEF12 in both gain- and loss-of-function studies: overexpression of miR-660 declined the mRNA and protein expressions of ARHGEF12 in C2C12 cells differentiation; however, knockdown of miR-660 had completely opposite results. Taken together, these results offered a new perspective for miR-660 in skeletal muscle differentiation. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 2387-2394, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.