MicroRNA-125a-3p overexpression promotes liver regeneration through targeting proline-rich acidic protein 1

Abstract Introduction and aim Liver regeneration plays a valuable significance for hepatectomies, and is mainly attributed to hepatocyte proliferation. MicroRNA-125a-3p was reported to be highly associated with liver regeneration process. We studied the underlying mechanism of the functional role of miR-125a-3p in liver regeneration. Materials and methods The miR-125a-3p mimics and inhibitor vector were constructed and transfected into primary human liver HL-7702 cells, the transfected cell viability was detected using cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8). Cell cycle distribution was analyzed by flow cytometry. With Targetscan and OUGene prediction, the potential targets of miR-125 were verified by real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) and luciferase reporter assays in turn. The overexpression vector of proline-rich acidic protein 1 (PRAP1) was constructed and co-transfected with miR-125a-3p mimics into HL-7702 cells, detecting the changes of proliferative capacity and cell cycle distribution. Western blot and qPCR performed to analyze gene expressions. Results Overexpressed miR-125a-3p notably increased the hepatocyte viability at 48 h, and decreased the number of G1 phase cells (p  Conclusion The elevated miR-125a-3p positively correlated with hepatocyte viability and cell cycle progression due to the modulation of PRAP1, and miR-125a-3p may contribute to improving liver regeneration.