Abstract
Bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) evokes urinary bladder wall remodeling significantly, including the phenotype shift of bladder smooth muscle cells (BSMCs) where transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-β1) plays a pivotal role given the emerging function of modulating cellular phenotype. miR-133 plays a role in cardiac and muscle remodeling, however, little is known about its roles in TGF-β1-induced BSMC hypertrophic and fibrotic response. Here, we verified BOO induced bladder wall remodeling and TGF-β1 expression mainly located in bladder endothelium. Furthermore, we uncovered miR-133a/b expression profile in BOO rats, and then explored its regulated effects on BSMCs' phenotypic shift. Our study found that miR-133 became down-regulated during rat bladder remodeling. Next, we sought to examine whether the expression of miR-133 was down-regulated in primary BSMCs in response to TGF-β1 stimulation and whether forced overexpression of miR-133 could regulate profibrotic TGF-β signaling. We found that stimulation of BSMCs with exogenous TGF-β1 of increasing concentrations resulted in a dose-dependent decrease of miR-133a/b levels and transfection with miR-133 mimics attenuated TGF-β1-induced α-smooth muscle actin, extracellular matrix subtypes and fibrotic growth factor expression, whereas it upregulated high molecular weight caldesmon expression compared with the negative control. Also, downregulation of p-Smad3, not p-Smad2 by miR-133 was detected. Additionally, miR-133 overexpression suppressed TGF-β1-induced BSMC hypertrophy and proliferation through influencing cell cycle distribution. Bioinformatics analyses predicted that connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) was the potential target of miR-133, and then binding to the 3'-untranslated region of CTGF was validated by luciferase reporter assay. These results reveal a novel regulator for miR-133 to modulate TGF-β1-induced BSMC phenotypic changes by targeting CTGF through the TGF-β-Smad3 signaling pathway. A novel antifibrotic functional role for miR-133 is presented which may represent a potential target for diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in bladder fibrosis.