Introduction:Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) are adult stem cells with high proliferative and developmental capacity in vitro that can be differentiated into neurons and glial cells.
microRNAs (miRNAs) are critical regulators of maintaining and changing cellular state during stem cell proliferation or differentiation. Distinct miRNAs regulate the proliferation and differentiation of HFSCs. Among the neural miRNAs, the function of miR-124 in the neural differentiation has been studied extensively. However, its exact role in the neuronal
differentiation of HFSCs has not been elucidated.
Material and Methods:HFSCs were isolated from mouse whisker follicles. miR-9, let-7b, and miR-124, Ptbp1, Sox9 , CCND1 (cyclinD1), NR2E1 (Tlx), RCOR2 ( CoREST), DLK1, Map2
and Rbfox3 (NeuN ) expression levels were detected by Real Time PCR (RT-PCR). The influence of miR-124 transfection was evaluated using immunostaining. Results:We demonstrated that miR-124 and let-7b expression levels were significantly increased after neural differentiation. DLK1,Map2 , Rbfox3 , CCND1 ، NR2E1 , RCOR2 ,Ptbp1 and Sox9 were identified as targets of miR-124 in neuronal differentiation of the HFSCs.During neural differentiation and miR-124 mimicking, Ptbp1 , Sox9 , CCND1 ، NR2E1 , RCOR2 levels were decreased and increased the level of expression of DLK1, Map2 and Rbfox3 genes in HFSCs. Moreover, miR-124 overexpression increased MAP2 (58.43±11.26) and NeuN (48.34±11.15) proteins expression. Conclusion:The results demonstrated that miR-124 may promote differentiation of HFSCs into neuronal cells by targeting non-neural genes Sox9 , Ptbp1,CCND1 ، NR2E1 and RCOR2. Key words: Hair follicle stem cells, Neural differentiation, miR-124, Sox9, Ptbp1, CCND1 ، NR2E1 , RCOR2,DLK1,Map2,Rbfox
