Abstract
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are bone marrow stromal cells capable of differentiating into different tissue types. Osteoblastic differentiation is a complex process that is critical for bone formation. An increasing number of studies have suggested that microRNAs (miRNAs) may serve important roles in various biological processes, including osteogenesis of MSCs. However, less is known about the participation of particular miRNAs in the osteogenic differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs). In order to identify functional miRNAs and the key genes involved in the osteogenesis of MSCs, the present study reconstructed a global network using data from the National Center for Biotechnology Information Gene Expression Omnibus. Meanwhile, gene ontology and pathway analysis were performed using the Cytoscape plug-in BinGO and the Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integration Discovery, respectively. An miRNA-mRNA network composed of 72 mRNA and nine miRNA nodes advised by bioinformatics analysis was constructed. These mRNAs and miRNAs were predicted to be involved in the regulation of osteogenic differentiation of ADSCs according to the gene microarray. In the present study, six miRNAs (miR-143-3p, miR-135a-5p, miR-31-5p, miR-22-3p, miR-193b-3p and let-7i-5p) were observed to be highly associated with the osteogenesis of ADSCs, and dihydropyrimidinase like 3 was identified as a novel regulator in this process. These results provide support for further investigations into the management of bone regeneration-associated diseases.