miR-34a inhibits differentiation of human adipose tissue-derived stem cells by regulating cell cycle and senescence induction.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are critical in the maintenance, differentiation, and lineage commitment of stem cells. Stem cells have the unique property to differentiate into tissue-specific cell types (lineage commitment) during cell division (self-renewal). In this study, we investigated whether miR-34a, a cell cycle-regulating microRNA, could control the stem cell properties of adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs). First, we found that the expression level of miR-34a was increased as the cell passage number was increased. This finding, however, was inversely correlated with our finding that the overexpression of miR-34a induced the decrease of cell proliferation. In addition, miR-34a overexpression decreased the expression of various cell cycle regulators such as CDKs (-2, -4, -6) and cyclins (-E, -D), but not p21 and p53. The cell cycle analysis showed accumulation of dividing cells at S phase by miR-34a, which was reversible by co-treatment with anti-miR-34a. The potential of adipogenesis and osteogenesis of ADSCs was also decreased by miR-34a overexpression, which was recovered by co-treatment with anti-miR-34a. The surface expression of stem cell markers including CD44 was also down-regulated by miR-34a overexpression as similar to that elicited by cell cycle inhibitors. miR-34a also caused a significant decrease in mRNA expression of stem cell transcription factors as well as STAT-3 expression and phosphorylation. Cytokine profiling revealed that miR-34a significantly modulated IL-6 and -8 production, which was strongly related to cellular senescence. These data suggest the importance of miR-34a for the fate of ADSCs toward senescence rather than differentiation.