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Author Spotlight: Decoding Corneal Neovascularization with Alkali Burn Model for Future Therapeutic Strategies
Published on: June 30, 2023
Long non-coding RNA H19 promotes corneal neovascularization by targeting microRNA-29c
Baoqi Sun1, Yiheng Ding1, Xin Jin1
1Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) H19 has been implicated in tumor angiogenesis. However, whether H19 regulates the progression of corneal neovascularization (CNV) is unclear. The present study aimed to determine the function of H19 in CNV and its possible molecular mechanism. Here, we found that the H19 levels were remarkably increased in vascularized corneas and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF)-treated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). In vitro, H19 up-regulation promoted proliferation, migration, tube formation and vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) expression in HUVECs, and it was found to down-regulate microRNA-29c (miR-29c) expression. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that H19 mediated the above effects by binding directly to miR-29c. In addition, miR-29c expression was markedly reduced in vascularized corneas and its expression also decreased in bFGF-treated HUVECs in vitro MiR-29c targeted the 3' untranslated region (3'-UTR) of VEGFA and decreased its expression. These data suggest that H19 can enhance CNV progression by inhibiting miR-29c, which negatively regulates VEGFA. This novel regulatory axis may serve as a potential therapeutic target for CNV.
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