MicroRNA-27a-3p Inhibits Melanogenesis in Mouse Skin Melanocytes by Targeting Wnt3a

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an essential role in the regulation of almost all the biological processes, including melanogenesis. MiR-27a-3p is nearly six times higher in white alpaca skin compared to brown skin, which indicates that miR-27a-3p may be a candidate regulator for melanogenesis. Wnt3a plays an important role in promoting melanoblasts to differentiate into melanocytes and melanogenesis. To confirm the function of miR-27a-3p to melanogenesis in mammals, miR-27a-3p mimic, inhibitor and their negative control were transfected into mouse melanocytes. As a result, miR-27a-3p inhibits melanogenesis by repressing Wnt3a at post-transcriptional level. A significant decrease in Wnt3a luciferase activity was observed in 293T cells co-transfected with the matched luciferase reporter vector and pre-miR-27a. Furthermore, the presence of exogenous miR-27a-3p significantly decreased Wnt3a protein expression rather than mRNA and reduced β-catenin mRNA levels in melanocytes. The over-expression of miR-27a-3p significantly increased the melanin content of melanocytes. However, miR-27a-3p inhibitor performs an opposite effect on melanogenesis. Wnt3a is one target of miR-27a-3p. MiR-27a-3p could inhibit Wnt3a protein amount by post-transcriptional regulation and melanogenesis in mouse melanocytes. Previous studies reported that Wnt3a promoted melanogenensis in mouse melanocytes. Thus, miR-27-3p inhibits melanogenesis by repressing Wnt3a protein expression.

Intrinsic and extrinsic regulation of human skin melanogenesis and pigmentation

“…The study validated that Wnt3a is a target of miR‐27a‐3p and showed that the transfection of mouse melanocytes with either miR‐27 mimics or inhibitors was followed by the down‐ or the upregulation of melanin content, respectively. The same approach with miR‐27 mimics or inhibitors demonstrated the respective down‐ or upregulation of Wnt3a peptide levels and of beta‐catenin expression in mouse melanocytes .…”

“…Zhao and colleagues described the role of miR‐27a‐3p in the inhibition of melanogenesis by targeting Wnt3a in mouse melanocytes . The study validated that Wnt3a is a target of miR‐27a‐3p and showed that the transfection of mouse melanocytes with either miR‐27 mimics or inhibitors was followed by the down‐ or the upregulation of melanin content, respectively.…”

“…The same approach with miR-27 mimics or inhibitors demonstrated the Melan-a cells (mouse) [143] miR-9, miR-130b, miR-182 (upregulated) ? = gene is unknown respective down-or upregulation of Wnt3a peptide levels and of beta-catenin expression in mouse melanocytes [140]. The miR-125b was also described as a regulator of melanogenesis.…”

Role of microRNA508-3p in melanogenesis by targeting microphthalmia transcription factor in melanocytes of alpaca

“…MITF is directly regulated by miRNAs such as miR-137 (Dong et al ., 2012) and miR-25 (Zhao et al ., 2015). MITF is one of the target genes for miR508-3p.…”

The comprehensive detection of miRNA, lncRNA, and circRNA in regulation of mouse melanocyte and skin development

“…miR-137 and miR-let-7b downregulate micropthalmiaassociated transcription factor (MITF) expression in melanoma cell lines, which are the major regulators of melanocyte development, survival, and function. Also, miRNA-27a-3p inhibits melanogenesis in mouse skin melanocytes by inhibiting the target gene wnt3 [14]. In the past few years, many miRNAs have been identified in mouse skin tissue.…”