Department of Gynecology, Jiaxing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province 314000, China; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province 215031, China.
Department of Gynecology, Jiaxing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province 314000, China; Department of Gynecology, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University Affiliated Jiaxing TCM Hospital, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province 314000, China; Department of Gynecology, Jiaxing University Affiliated TCM Hospital, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province 314000, China.
J Reprod Immunol. 2023 Aug;158:103974. doi: 10.1016/j.jri.2023.103974. Epub 2023 Jun 2.
Endometriosis (EM) is a common chronic disease in women with a high incidence, and aberrant DNA methylation and circulating endometrial cells (CECs) have been reported to be involved in the development of EM. However, the underlying mechanisms by which DNA methylation regulates EM progression have not been fully elucidated. In our study, we demonstrated that the DNA methyltransferase 3 beta (DNMT3B)-mediated DNA methylation modification enhanced EM progression through regulating miR-17-5p/KLF12/Wnt/β-catenin axis. In detail, expression levels of miR-17-5p were significantly downregulated in EM tissues and serums, and we found that DNMT3B elevated the methylation modification of the miR-17-5p promoter, thereby suppressing the expression of miR-17-5p. Subsequently, functional experiments showed that silencing DNMT3B inhibited cell viability and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and promoted cell apoptosis in CECs, whereas this effect could be reversed by knocking down miR-17-5p. Besides, overexpression of miR-17-5p repressed EM progression in vivo. Moreover, we found that miR-17-5p could target negative regulation of Krüppel-like factor 12 (KLF12) and KLF12 overexpression could rescue the effect of over-miR-17-5p. Besides, miR-17-5p was able to suppress the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, and blocked Wnt/β-catenin pathway by XAV-939 reversed the influence of knockdown of miR-17-5p. Overall, our data indicated that DNMT3B-mediated DNA methylation leading to miR-17-5p inhibition exacerbated the process of EM by targeting KLF12/Wnt/β-catenin axis, which provided a new perspective on targeted therapies for EM.
子宫内膜异位症(EM)是一种常见的女性慢性疾病,发病率较高,已有报道表明异常的 DNA 甲基化和循环子宫内膜细胞(CEC)参与了 EM 的发生。然而,DNA 甲基化调控 EM 进展的潜在机制尚未完全阐明。在我们的研究中,我们证明了 DNA 甲基转移酶 3β(DNMT3B)介导的 DNA 甲基化修饰通过调节 miR-17-5p/KLF12/Wnt/β-catenin 轴增强了 EM 的进展。具体而言,在 EM 组织和血清中,miR-17-5p 的表达水平显著下调,我们发现 DNMT3B 升高了 miR-17-5p 启动子的甲基化修饰,从而抑制了 miR-17-5p 的表达。随后,功能实验表明,沉默 DNMT3B 抑制了 CEC 中的细胞活力和上皮-间充质转化(EMT),并促进了细胞凋亡,而敲低 miR-17-5p 可以逆转这种作用。此外,过表达 miR-17-5p 可在体内抑制 EM 进展。此外,我们发现 miR-17-5p 可以靶向 Krüppel 样因子 12(KLF12)的负调控,而过表达 KLF12 可以挽救过表达 miR-17-5p 的作用。此外,miR-17-5p 能够抑制 Wnt/β-catenin 信号通路,而 XAV-939 阻断 Wnt/β-catenin 通路可逆转敲低 miR-17-5p 的影响。总之,我们的数据表明,DNMT3B 介导的 DNA 甲基化导致 miR-17-5p 抑制通过靶向 KLF12/Wnt/β-catenin 轴加剧了 EM 进程,这为 EM 的靶向治疗提供了新的视角。