| Summary: | Qiong Wang, Yanting Zhu, Qianlan Dong, Linping Zhang, Wei Zhang Kidney Disease and Dialysis Center, Shaanxi Provincial People’s Hospital, Xi’an City, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Wei Zhang, Kidney Disease and Dialysis Center, Shaanxi Provincial People’s Hospital, No. 256 West Youyi Road, Beilin District, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710068, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 2985251331, Email zhangweiglu2021@126.comBackground: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a serious microvascular complication of diabetes that may lead to chronic renal failure and end-stage renal disease. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play important roles in DN progression. However, the action of circRNA ADP ribosylation factor 3 (circ_Arf3) in high glucose (HG)-induced change is still unclear.Methods: Mouse mesangial cells (MCs) were treated with 30 mM HG as a DN cell model in vitro. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was employed to examine the expression levels of circ_Arf3, microRNA (miR)-452-5p and muscleblind like splicing regulator 1 (Mbnl1). The proliferation of HG-treated MCs was assessed using 5 Ethynyl 2′ deoxyuridine (EdU) and cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assays, and the levels of proliferation and fibrosis-related proteins and Mbnl1 were detected by Western blot. Dual-luciferase reporter and RNA pull-down assays were utilized to determine the relationship between miR-452-5p and circ_Arf3 or Mbnl1.Results: Our results discovered that circ_Arf3 and Mbnl1 were lowly expressed in HG-treated MCs, while miR-452-5p expression was up-regulated. Moreover, circ_Arf3 was mainly located in the cytoplasm and had a ring-like stable structure. Functional assays demonstrated that overexpression of circ_Arf3 prevented cell proliferation and fibrous formation in HG-treated MCs. Circ_Arf3 could sponge miR-452-5p, and the effect of circ_Arf3 overexpression was reversed by enhanced expression of miR-452-5p. Mbnl1 was a direct target of miR-452-5p. Knockdown of Mbnl1 abolished the suppressive effects of miR-452-5p inhibitor on proliferation and fibrosis-related protein expression in HG-treated MCs. Moreover, circ_Arf3 regulated Mbnl1 through miR-452-5p.Conclusion: Overexpression of circ_Arf3 prevents cell proliferation and fibrous formation in HG-treated MCs by regulating the expression of Mbnl1 via miR-452-5p.Keywords: circ_Arf3, miR-452-5p, Mbnl1, diabetes nephropathy
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