This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Silicosis is a devastating occupational disease caused by long‐term inhalation of silica particles, inducing irreversible lung damage and affecting lung function, without effective treatment. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a heterogeneous subset of adult stem cells that exhibit excellent self‐renewal capacity, multi‐lineage differentiation potential and immunomodulatory properties. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of bone marrow‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) in a silica‐induced rat model of pulmonary fibrosis. The rats were treated with BMSCs on days 14, 28 and 42 after perfusion with silica. Histological examination and hydroxyproline assays showed that BMSCs alleviated silica‐induced pulmonary fibrosis in rats. Results from ELISA and qRT‐PCR indicated that BMSCs inhibited the expression of inflammatory cytokines TNF‐α, IL‐1β and IL‐6 in lung tissues and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of rats exposed to silica particles. We also performed qRT‐PCR, Western blot and immunohistochemistry to examine epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT)–related indicators and demonstrated that BMSCs up‐regulate E‐cadherin and down‐regulate vimentin and extracellular
matrix (ECM) components such as fibronectin and collagen Ⅰ. Additionally, BMSCs inhibited the silica‐induced increase in TGF‐β1, p‐Smad2 and p‐Smad3 and decrease in Smad7. These results suggested that BMSCs can inhibit inflammation and reverse EMT through the inhibition of the TGF‐β/Smad signalling pathway to exhibit an anti‐fibrotic effect in the rat silicosis model. Our study provides a new and meaningful perspective for silicosis treatment strategies.
Background. Esophageal cancer is one of the most deadly malignant tumors. Among the common malignant tumors in the world, esophageal cancer is ranked seventh, which has a high mortality rate. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in the occurrence and development of various tumors. lncRNAs can competitively bind microRNAs (miRNAs) with mRNA, which can regulate the expression level of the encoded gene at the posttranscriptional level. This regulatory mechanism is called the competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) hypothesis, and ceRNA has important research value in tumor-related research. However, the regulation of lncRNAs is less studied in the study of esophageal cancer. Methods. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was used to download transcriptome profiling data of esophageal cancer. Gene expression quantification data contains 160 cancer samples and 11 normal samples. These data were used to identify differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs. miRNA expression data includes 185 cancer samples and 13 normal samples. The differentially expressed RNAs were identified using the edgeR package in R software. Then, the miRcode database was used to predict miRNAs that bind to lncRNAs. MiRTarBase, miRDB, and TargetScan databases were used to predict the target genes of miRNAs. Cytoscape software was used to draw ceRNA network. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were performed using DAVID 6.8. Finally, multifactor cox regression was used to screen lncRNAs related to prognosis. Results. We have screened 1331 DElncRNAs, 3193 DEmRNAs, and 162 DEmiRNAs. Among them, the ceRNA network contains 111 lncRNAs, 11 miRNAs, and 63 DEmRNAs. Finally, we established a prediction model containing three lncRNAs through multifactor Cox regression analysis. Conclusions. Our research screened out three independent prognostic lncRNAs from the ceRNA network and constructed a risk assessment model. This is helpful to understand the regulatory role of lncRNAs in esophageal cancer.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.