Abstract
Angiogenesis is critical to the success of digital replantation. Recent study suggests an important regulatory role of microRNA-370 (miR-370) in ischemia-reperfusion injury. However, its function in digital replantation is poorly understood. In this study, we reported that the expression of miR-370 was upregulated in replantation tissues. miR-370 mimic transfection promoted human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) proliferation by regulating the cell cycle and inhibited apoptosis. miR-370 mimic transfection also significantly increased HUVECs migration and induced the formation of capillary-like structures in HUVECs, indicated that miR-370 promoted capillary tube formation in vitro. Furthermore, forkhead box protein O1 (FOXO1) was identified as the functional target of miR-370 by dual-luciferase reporter assay. FOXO1 overexpression vector lacked 3'-UTR together with miR-370 mimic transfection strongly abrogated miR-370-induced cell proliferation and the formation of capillary-like structures in HUVECs. Taken together, our results revealed that the upregulation of miR-370 might facilitate the repair of amputated fingers by regulating angiogenesis through targeting FOXO1. This study provided a potential therapeutic target for the restoration of finger function after replantation.