Conclusion
Quer could repress hypoxia-induced injury in PC-12 cells by activating AMPK and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways via down-regulation of miR-122.
Methods
PC-12 cells were cultured under anoxic condition for induction of hypoxia injury and/or treatment with Quer, transfection with pre-miR-122, anti-miR-122 or their negative controls. After Quer treatment, viability, migration, and cell apoptosis of PC-12 cells were analyzed by CCK-8 assay, transwell assay and flowcytometry analysis, respectively. Cell proliferation-associated proteins and cell apoptosis-associated proteins were analyzed by Western blot. Relative miR-122 expression in Quer-treated cells or transfection efficacy of miR-122 was analyzed by qRT-PCR. Finally, main components in AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways were analyzed by Western blot.
Results
Quer alleviated hypoxia-induced injury in PC-12 cells by increasing viability, promoting cell proliferation, enhancing migration and repressing apoptosis. Also, miR-122 was down-regulated in Quer-treated cells. miR-122 overexpression decreased cell viability and migration, and increased cell apoptosis in hypoxia- treated PC-12 cells, but miR-122 silencing led to the opposite results. We also found that AMPK and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways were activated by Quer in hypoxia-induced injury, but were inactivated in hypoxia-induced cells by overexpression of miR-122.