MiR-542-3p drives renal fibrosis by targeting AGO1 in vivo and in vitro.

AIMS: Renal fibrosis is the typical manifestation of progressive kidney disease and causes a severe threat to human health. Surging evidence has illustrated that miRNA plays a core role in the genesis and development of kidney fibrosis. MiR-542-3p has been testified to function as a facilitator in hepatic stellate cell activation and fibrosis. The purpose of study is to investigate the potential of miR-542-3p in renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, to establish renal fibrosis model in vivo and in vitro, we first conducted unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) on rats and high glucose (HG) treatment on the HK-2 cells. Histological and western blot analyses were utilized for assessment of renal fibrosis model. Luciferase reporter assay was carried out to explore the regulatory mechanism underlying miR-542-3p in renal fibrosis. KEY FINDINGS: MiR-542-3p was found to be highly expressed in renal fibrosis. Functional experiments revealed that overexpression of miR-542-3p accelerated the deterioration of kidney fibrosis and inhibition of miR-542-3p led to the opposite result. Through the aid of bioinformatics tool, the speculated miR-542-3p binding sites were uncovered in the 3'UTR of argonaute RISC component 1 (AGO1). Mechanism study elucidated that AGO1 was a direct target of miR-542-3p. Lastly, our findings suggested that miR-542-3p played a promoting role in renal fibrosis via repression of AGO1. SIGNIFICANCE: We justified that miR-542-3p induced kidney fibrogenesis both in vivo and in vitro through targeting AGO1, unveiling that miR-542-3p might be a promising option for the treatment of patients with renal fibrosis.

Succinic acid production from hemicellulose hydrolysate by an Escherichia coli mutant obtained by atmospheric and room temperature plasma and adaptive evolution.

Atmospheric and room temperature plasma and adaptive evolution were combined to generate Escherichia coli mutants, which can simultaneously and efficiently utilize glucose and xylose to produce succinic acid in chemically defined medium under exclusively anaerobic condition. Compared to the parent strain BA305, a pflB, ldhA, ppc, and ptsG deletion strain overexpressing ATP-forming phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) carboxykinase (PEPCK), the sugar consumption rate and succinic acid productivity of mutant BA408 were significantly improved with a marked increase in the key enzyme activities. Subsequent anaerobic fermentation of BA408 with corn stalk hydrolysate produced a final succinic acid concentration of 23.1 g L(-1) with a yield of 0.85 g g(-1) sugar mixture. The observed synthesis of succinic acid from the corn stalk hydrolysate showed a great potential usage of renewable biomass as a feedstock for an economical succinic acid production using E. coli.