MicroRNA 4423 is a primate-specific regulator of airway epithelial cell differentiation and lung carcinogenesis.

ABSTRACT: Smoking is a significant risk factor for lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Although microRNAs are regulators of many airway gene-expression changes induced by smoking, their role in modulating changes associated with lung cancer in these cells remains unknown. Here, we use next-generation sequencing of small RNAs in the airway to identify microRNA 4423 (miR-4423) as a primate-specific microRNA associated with lung cancer and expressed primarily in mucociliary epithelium. The endogenous expression of miR-4423 increases as bronchial epithelial cells undergo differentiation into mucociliary epithelium in vitro, and its overexpression during this process causes an increase in the number of ciliated cells. Furthermore, expression of miR-4423 is reduced in most l

SUBMITTER: Perdomo C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3839685 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature