Abstract
MicroRNAs are involved in many cellular and molecular activities and played important roles in many biological and pathological processes, such as tissue formation, cancer development, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, and cardiovascular diseases. Recently, it has been reported that microRNAs can modulate the differentiation and activities of osteoblasts and osteoclasts, the key cells that are involved in bone remodeling process. Meanwhile, the results from our and other research groups showed that the expression profiles of microRNAs in the serum and bone tissues are significantly different in postmenopausal women with or without fractures compared to the control. Therefore, it can be postulated that microRNAs might play important roles in bone remodeling and that they are very likely to be involved in the pathological process of postmenopausal osteoporosis. In this review, we will present the updated research on the regulatory roles of microRNAs in osteoblasts and osteoclasts and the expression profiles of microRNAs in osteoporosis and osteoporotic fracture patients. The perspective of serum microRNAs as novel biomarkers in bone loss disorders such as osteoporosis has also been discussed.
Highlights
MicroRNA is a small noncoding RNA molecule found in plants, animals, and some viruses, which has functions in RNA silencing and posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression [1]. miRNAs interact with targets that have similar sequences, which inhibits translation of different genes, miRNAs are not completely complementary to the mRNA sequence. miRNAs have been reported to impact on the expression of 1%∼4% human genes by regulating about 30% human mRNAs [2]
MiRNAs play an important role in many biological processes, such as tissue formation [3,4,5,6,7], cancer development [8], diabetes [9], neurodegenerative diseases [10], systemic autoimmunity diseases [11], and cardiovascular diseases [12]
Osteoblasts are differentiated from mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) through several key signaling pathways such as Wnt and Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs)
Summary
MicroRNA (miRNA) is a small noncoding RNA molecule (containing about 22 nucleotides) found in plants, animals, and some viruses, which has functions in RNA silencing and posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression [1]. miRNAs interact with targets that have similar sequences, which inhibits translation of different genes, miRNAs are not completely complementary to the mRNA sequence. miRNAs have been reported to impact on the expression of 1%∼4% human genes by regulating about 30% human mRNAs [2]. MiRNAs have been reported to impact on the expression of 1%∼4% human genes by regulating about 30% human mRNAs [2]. MiRNAs have been identified to be involved in the process of bone remodeling and many bone metabolic diseases, such as osteoporosis [13, 14]. Several miRNAs have been reported to regulate bone metabolism by modulating the differentiation and activity of osteoblasts and osteoclasts, such as miR-223 [16] and miR-103a [17]. MiRNAs are regarded as one of the important modulators in the bone remodeling. We will discuss the mechanisms of microRNAs involved in the bone formation and resorption, in particular the relationship between miRNAs and osteoblasts/osteoclasts. We hope this review will shed new light on the understanding of the characteristics of miRNA in bone remodeling and bone loss disorders
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