Long Non-Coding RNA IFNG-AS1 Regulates oxLDL-Induced Proliferation and Apoptosis of Vascular Endothelial Cells by Targeting miR-19b-1-5p

To investigate the effect and mechanism of lncRNA IFNG-AS1 on the proliferation and apoptosis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells EVC-304 induced by oxLDL, 100 μg/mL oxLDL was used to treat the EVC-304 cells transfected with si-IFNG-AS1, miR-19b-1-5p mimics or co-transfected with si-IFNG-AS1 and anti-miR-19b-1-5p. Then, qRT-PCR was used to detect the expression of IFNG-AS1 and miR-19b-1-5p in the cells. CCK-8 method was used to detect cell proliferation, and flow cytometry was used to detect cell apoptosis. Western blot was used to detect the protein expression of P21, P16, cleaved-PARP and cleaved-caspase-3. Dual luciferase reporter gene experiment was applied for verifying the targeting relationship between IFNG-AS1 and miR-19b-1-5p. The results showed that oxLDL promoted the expression of IFNG-AS1 in EVC-304 cells, but inhibited the expression of miR-19b-1-5p (P<0.05); IFNG-AS1 inhibition or miR-19b-1-5p overexpression increased the proliferation activity of EVC-304 cells induced by oxLDL and the protein expression of P21 and P16, while reduced the apoptosis rate and the protein expression of cleaved-PARP and cleaved-caspase-3 (P<0.05); miR-19b-1-5p inhibition reversed the effect of IFNG-AS1 inhibition on the proliferation and apoptosis of EVC-304 cells induced by oxLDL; dual luciferase reporter gene experiments confirmed that IFNG-AS1 negatively regulated the expression of miR-19b-1-5p. These results suggested that inhibition of IFNG-AS1 might enhance the proliferation of EVC-304 cells treated with oxLDL and inhibit their apoptosis, and its action mechanism was related to the up-regulation of miR-19b-1-5p. The IFNG-AS1/miR-19b-1-5p axis may provide new targets for the treatment of atherosclerosis.

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2021.02.0003