miR-17-5p mitigates endometriosis by directly regulating VEGFA

Endometriosis is a common disease in women, which impairs the quality of life in patients. Recently, accumulating evidences reported that miRNAs play an essential role in diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis. However, the regulatory mechanism of miRNAs has not been fully explored. The expression of miR-17-5p and VEGFA was detected using qRT-PCR. The protein level of VEGFA was measured via Western blot. Cell proliferation was determined by CCK-8 assay. Cell migration and invasion were measured via transwell assay. The relationship of miR-17-5p and VEGFA were verified via luciferase reporter assay. Then miR-17-5p was remarkably down-regulated in endometriosis tissues, serums and cells, and overexpression of miR-17-5p inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion in endometriosis. Results showed that VEGFA was significantly up-regulated in endometriosis tissues and cells and acted as a target of miR-17-5p. Moreover, miR- 17-5p negatively regulated VEGFA expression in endometriosis. Otherwise, up-regulation of VEGFA improved cell proliferative, migrated and invasive ability in ECSCs with transfection of miR-17-5p mimics group. Our data showed miR-17-5p inhibits cell proliferation, migration and invasion in endometriosis by directly repressing VEGFA expression.