Effect of miR-192-5p on Osteogenic Differentiation of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Idiopathic Scoliosis by Regulating Wnt/β-catenin Signaling Pathway via RSPO1

Abstract BackgroundIdiopathic scoliosis (IS) is the most common structural scoliosis, which seriously affects not only patient’s physical and mental health but also quality of patient’s life. Abnormal osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) is one of the causes of IS. However, the regulation mechanism of osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs in patients with IS remains to be further studied.MethodsSerum samples of 135 patients with IS were collected, and the expression of miRNA were detected by RT-qPCR. BMSCs from patients with IS were collected and the expression of miR-192-5p in BMSCs from IS patients and normal BMSCs was detected by RT-qPCR. Double luciferase reporter genes assay was used to verify the targeting relationship between miR-192-5p and RSPO1. The levels of RSPO1, osteogenic related proteins (OC, OPN and RUNX2) and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway related proteins (WNT3A and β-catenin) were detected by Western blotting. Alkaline phosphatase staining and alizarin red staining were used to evaluate the osteogenesis of BMSCs.ResultsmiR-192-5p was significantly up-regulated in serum and BMSCs of patients with IS. Alkaline phosphatase staining and alizarin red staining showed that miR-192-5p inhibitor promoted the osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs from IS patients. miR-192-5p targeted down-regulated the expression of RSPO1 in BMSCs from IS patients. In addition, overexpression of RSPO1 activated Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in BMSCs from IS patients. Furthermore, miR-192-5p/RSPO1 axis regulated levels of osteogenic related proteins (OC, OPN and RUNX2) in BMSCs from IS patients through Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, and affected the osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs.ConclusionmiR-192-5p, which was highly expressed in patients with IS, inhibited Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway by down-regulating RSPO1 protein and then reduced the osteogenic differentiation ability of BMSCs.