Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is an important measure for stroke prevention in patients with asymptomatic severe carotid artery stenosis and symptomatic moderate to severe carotid artery stenosis. The anesthesia types of CEA include general anesthesia (GA) and regional anesthesia (RA). The existing low-quality evidence shows that there is no significant difference in the incidence of stroke and death within 30 days of operation between RA and GA. However, some recent studies have shown that the incidence of perioperative complications during CEA under RA is significantly lower than that under GA. Further high-quality research is needed to clarify the risks and benefits of CEA under RA and GA.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the role of miR-144-3p in regulating osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and predict its target genes.

METHODSRat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) with induced osteogenic differentiation were examined for the expressions of Runx2, OCN and miR-144-3p. The effects of transfection with a miR-144-3p mimic or a miR-144-3p inhibitor were tested on the osteogenic differentiation of the BMSCs. The changes in the expressions of the predicted target of miR-144-3p in the BMSCs during induced osteogenic differentiation were examined using Western blotting and qRT-PCR.

RESULTSRat BMSCs with induced differentiation into osteoblasts exhibited a progressive increase in the expressions of Runx2 and OCN (two markers of osteogenic differentiation), while the expression of miR-144-3p gradually decreased during the differentiation till reaching the lowest level at 21 days of induction. In rat BMSCs, transfection with the miR-144-3p mimic significantly decreased ALP activity ( < 0.05) wile transfection with the miR-144-3p inhibitor significantly increased ALP activity ( < 0.05) in rat BMSCs. Analysis based on miRanda, microRNA.org database and TargetScan suggested that Smad4 was the most likely target gene of miR-144-3p. The results of qRT-PCR showed no significant differences in expression levels of Smad4 among the cells with different treatments ( > 0.05), while Western blotting revealed a significantly decreased expression of Smad4 in the cells transfected with miR-144-3p mimics and an increased Smad4 expression in the cells transfected with the miR-144-3p inhibitor as compared with the control cells ( < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSmiR-144-3p participates in the regulation of osteogenic differentiation of rat BMSCs, and its inhibitory effect on osteogenic differentiation is achieved probably by decreasing the expression level of Smad4.