miR-126 promotes endothelial progenitor cell migration and targets KANK2

Objective To investigate the role of miR-126 (micro RNA-126) in rat endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) proliferation and migration and the starget gene of miR-126 by bioinformatics and experimental survey.Method EPCs were transfected with control oligoes and miR-126 mimics or inhibitor by electroporation.MTT was performed to evaluate the growth of EPCs subjecting to miR-126 overexpression.Cell migration analysis was done by wound healing and transwell assay.The target genes of miR-126 were predicted by TargetScan and validated by Western blot.Result (1) miR-126 mimics promoted EPCs growth at 24 h post cell transfection (P ＜ 0.01).In contrast,the EPCs growth was immue from miR-126 application at 48 and 72 h.(2) Both the wound healing and transwell assay show that miR-126 promotes EPCs migration (P ＜ 0.01) and miR-126 inhibitor inhibits EPCs migration (P ＜ 0.01).(3)It is predicted that KANK2 is the potential target gene of miR-126 by TargetScan online software.(4) The results of Western blot indicated that miR-126 mimics repress the expression of KANK2 compared with NC but miR-126 inhibitor enhances KANK2 expression.Conclusions miR-126 has a transient effect on the promotion of EPCc growth.miR-126 promotes EPCs migration and targets KANK2 protein. Key words: Micro RNAs;  Stem cells ;  Cell proliferation ;  Cell movement