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Emerging roles of circular RNAs in osteoporosis
Weichun Chen1, Baozhong Zhang1, Xiao Chang1
1Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Abstract:
Osteoporosis is one bone disease characterized with skeletal impairment, bone strength reduced and fracture risk enhanced. The regulation processes of bone metabolism are associated with several factors such as mechanical stimulation, epigenetic regulation and hormones. However, the mechanism of osteoporosis remains unsatisfactory. Increasing high-throughput RNA sequencing and circular RNAs (circRNAs) microarray studies indicated that circRNAs are differentially expressed in osteoporosis. Growing functional studies further pinpointed specific deregulated expressed circRNAs (e.g., circ_28313, circ_0016624, circ_0006393, circ_0076906 and circ_0048211) for their functions involved in bone metabolism, including bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis. Moreover, CircRNAs (circ_0002060, Circ_0001275 and Circ_0001445) may be acted as diagnostic biomarkers for osteoporosis. This review discussed recent progresses in the circRNAs expression profiling analyses and their potential functions in regulating BMSCs differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis.
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