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miR-124 Represses ROCK1 Expression to Promote Neurite Elongation Through Activation of the PI3K/Akt Signal Pathway

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Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated an important role for miR-124, the most abundant and well-conserved brain-specific microRNA(miRNA), in promoting neurite outgrowth and elongation during neuronal differentiation. This miRNA’s target genes and the mechanisms that execute this role remain unclear. In this study, we identified ROCK1, a small GTPase Rho kinase, as a direct target of miR-124 for regulating neurite elongation. miR-124 significantly inhibited ROCK1 expression in M17 cells. Inhibiting ROCK1 promoted neurite elongation, and the overexpression of ROCK1 strongly repressed the neurite elongation-enhancing effect of miR-124 in M17 cells. We determined that Akt functions as a novel ROCK1 downstream effector in regulating neurite outgrowth and elongation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81071016), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-12-0647), Key Project of Guangdong Province (CXZD1018), and the Program for Changjiang Scholars and the Innovative Research Team in University (IRT1142). The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

    Xi Gu, Siying Meng, Shuhu Liu, Yingying Fang, Shuji Li, Congcong Fu, Lifang Lin & Xuemin Wang

  2. Department of Cell Biology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

    Chunhong Jia & Qiancheng Song

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  1. Xi Gu
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  2. Siying Meng
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  3. Shuhu Liu
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  4. Chunhong Jia
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  7. Congcong Fu
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  8. Qiancheng Song
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  9. Lifang Lin
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  10. Xuemin Wang
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Correspondence to Xuemin Wang.

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Gu, X., Meng, S., Liu, S. et al. miR-124 Represses ROCK1 Expression to Promote Neurite Elongation Through Activation of the PI3K/Akt Signal Pathway. J Mol Neurosci 52, 156–165 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-013-0190-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-013-0190-6

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