- Xu J. (2019) microRNA-16–5p promotes 3T3-L1 adipocyte differentiation through regulating EPT1. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
Adipogenesis is an organized process of cellular differentiation by which pre-adipocytes differentiate towards mature adipocytes. miR-16–5p has been reported to be involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation and angiogenesis. However little is known about miR-16–5p functional role in 3T3-L1 adipocyte differentiation. In this study, we found that miRNA-16–5p was significantly upregulated during 3T3-L1 preadipocytes differentiation towards mature adipocytes. Over-expression of miRNA-16–5p promoted mature adipocytes specific genes expression and fat droplet accumulation in vitro and in vivo. Meanwhile we have identified EPT1 as the target gene of miRNA-16–5p. Taken together, our data provided evidence to support that miRNA-16–5p promotes adipocyte differentiation by suppressing EPT1.