Inhibition of miR-23a-3p promotes osteoblast proliferation and differentiation.

Osteoporosis is one of the most common and debilitating skeletal disorders. Although studies in the last decade had uncovered the signaling pathways involved in bone formation stimulation, preventative of the onset and more efficient therapeutic strategies for the treatment of osteoporosis remain an important unmet clinical need. MicroRNAs were reported to play an important role in maintaining bone development and metabolism. We investigated the effect of miR-23a-3p on the proliferation and differentiation of osteoblast isolated from the tibia bone tissue of osteoporosis rats. Eighty Wistar female rats were divided into osteoporosis model group and normal group. Tibia bone tissues and osteoblasts were isolated for the following experiments. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction illustrated that miR-23a-3p expression was significantly increased, while PGC-1α/WNT/β-catenin signaling related proteins were significantly inhibited in tibia bone tissues of osteoporosis rat compared with normal control rat. MiR-23a-3p inhibited PGC-1α expression and suppressed the WNT/β-catenin signaling pathway via directly targeting PGC-1α. Furthermore, suppression of miR-23a-3p increased cell viability and cell proliferation, inhibited apoptosis in primary osteoblast, and promoted alkaline phosphatase activity and calcium nodules by targeting PGC-1α/WNT/β-catenin signaling pathway. Our study revealed that inhibition of miR-23a-3p promoted the osteoblasts proliferation and differentiation through targeting PGC-1α/WNT/β-catenin signaling in osteoporosis rats.