MicroRNAs and Endometriosis: Distinguishing Drivers from Passengers in Disease Pathogenesis

Warren B. Nothnick

doi:10.1055/s-0037-1599089

Seminars in Reproductive Medicine, Table of Contents

Semin Reprod Med 2017; 35(02): 173-180
DOI: 10.1055/s-0037-1599089

Review Article

Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

MicroRNAs and Endometriosis: Distinguishing Drivers from Passengers in Disease Pathogenesis

Warren B. Nothnick

¹Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas

› Author Affiliations

Abstract

Endometriosis is a disease common in women of reproductive age, characterized by pelvic pain and infertility. Despite its prevalence, the factors and mechanisms which contribute to the development and survival of ectopic lesions remain uncertain. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA molecules that regulate posttranscriptional gene regulation which have been proposed to contribute to the pathogenesis of many diseases including that of endometriosis. This review summarizes the results of initial studies describing differentially expressed miRNAs between endometriotic lesion tissue and eutopic endometrium. Focus then moves toward discussion of studies on examining function of differentially expressed miRNAs to determine if they play a permissive role (driver of the disease) in events conducive to endometriosis progression/survival. Included in this discussion are the potential targets of these miRNAs and how their mis-expression may contribute to the disease. Limitations and challenges faced in studying miRNAs and endometriosis pathogenesis and recommendations to overcome these hurdles are presented at the end.

Keywords

endometriosis - pathogenesis - miRNA

Full Text

References

References
1 Halme J, Hammond MG, Hulka JF, Raj SG, Talbert LM. Retrograde menstruation in healthy women and in patients with endometriosis. Obstet Gynecol 1984; 64 (2) 151-154
2 Liu DTY, Hitchcock A. Endometriosis: its association with retrograde menstruation, dysmenorrhoea and tubal pathology. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 1986; 93 (8) 859-862
3 Dmowski WP, Gebel HM, Rawlins RG. Immunologic aspects of endometriosis. Obstet Gynecol Clin North Am 1989; 16 (1) 93-103
4 Sharpe-Timms KL. Endometrial anomalies in women with endometriosis. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2001; 943: 131-147
5 Sasson IE, Taylor HS. Stem cells and the pathogenesis of endometriosis. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2008; 1127: 106-115
6 Bartel DP. MicroRNAs: genomics, biogenesis, mechanism, and function. Cell 2004; 116 (2) 281-297
7 Vasudevan S, Tong Y, Steitz JA. Switching from repression to activation: microRNAs can up-regulate translation. Science 2007; 318 (5858): 1931-1934
8 Berezikov E, Chung WJ, Willis J, Cuppen E, Lai EC. Mammalian mirtron genes. Mol Cell 2007; 28 (2) 328-336
9 Saini HK, Griffiths-Jones S, Enright AJ. Genomic analysis of human microRNA transcripts. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2007; 104 (45) 17719-17724
10 Cai X, Hagedorn CH, Cullen BR. Human microRNAs are processed from capped, polyadenylated transcripts that can also function as mRNAs. RNA 2004; 10 (12) 1957-1966
11 Cheloufi S, Dos Santos CO, Chong MM, Hannon GJ. A dicer-independent miRNA biogenesis pathway that requires Ago catalysis. Nature 2010; 465 (7298): 584-589
12 Cifuentes D, Xue H, Taylor DW , et al. A novel miRNA processing pathway independent of Dicer requires Argonaute2 catalytic activity. Science 2010; 328 (5986): 1694-1698
13 Hutvagner G, Simard MJ. Argonaute proteins: key players in RNA silencing. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 2008; 9 (1) 22-32
14 Standart N, Jackson RJ. MicroRNAs repress translation of m7Gppp-capped target mRNAs in vitro by inhibiting initiation and promoting deadenylation. Genes Dev 2007; 21 (16) 1975-1982
15 Chendrimada TP, Finn KJ, Ji X , et al. MicroRNA silencing through RISC recruitment of eIF6. Nature 2007; 447 (7146): 823-828
16 Lytle JR, Yario TA, Steitz JA. Target mRNAs are repressed as efficiently by microRNA-binding sites in the 5′ UTR as in the 3′ UTR. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2007; 104 (23) 9667-9672
17 Zhou X, Duan X, Qian J, Li F. Abundant conserved microRNA target sites in the 5′-untranslated region and coding sequence. Genetica 2009; 137 (2) 159-164
18 Barrett LW, Fletcher S, Wilton SD. Regulation of eukaryotic gene expression by the untranslated gene regions and other non-coding elements. Cell Mol Life Sci 2012; 69 (21) 3613-3634
19 Mendell JT. MicroRNAs: critical regulators of development, cellular physiology and malignancy. Cell Cycle 2005; 4 (9) 1179-1184
20 Alvarez-Garcia I, Miska EA. MicroRNA functions in animal development and human disease. Development 2005; 132 (21) 4653-4662
21 Soifer HS, Rossi JJ, Saetrom P. MicroRNAs in disease and potential therapeutic applications. Mol Ther 2007; 15 (12) 2070-2079
22 Ohlsson Teague EM, Van der Hoek KH, Van der Hoek MB , et al. MicroRNA-regulated pathways associated with endometriosis. Mol Endocrinol 2009; 23 (2) 265-275
23 Filigheddu N, Gregnanin I, Porporato PE , et al. Differential expression of microRNAs between eutopic and ectopic endometrium in ovarian endometriosis. J Biomed Biotechnol 2010; 2010: 369549
24 Hawkins SM, Creighton CJ, Han DY , et al. Functional microRNA involved in endometriosis. Mol Endocrinol 2011; 25 (5) 821-832
25 Long M, Wan X, La X, Gong X, Cai X. miR-29c is downregulated in the ectopic endometrium and exerts its effects on endometrial cell proliferation, apoptosis and invasion by targeting c-Jun. Int J Mol Med 2015; 35 (4) 1119-1125
26 Shi XY, Gu L, Chen J, Guo XR, Shi YL. Downregulation of miR-183 inhibits apoptosis and enhances the invasive potential of endometrial stromal cells in endometriosis. Int J Mol Med 2014; 33 (1) 59-67
27 Yang RQ, Teng H, Xu XH , et al. Microarray analysis of microRNA deregulation and angiogenesis-related proteins in endometriosis. Genet Mol Res 2016; 15(2):
28 Ramón LA, Braza-Boïls A, Gilabert-Estellés J , et al. microRNAs expression in endometriosis and their relation to angiogenic factors. Hum Reprod 2011; 26 (5) 1082-1090
29 Zhao M, Tang Q, Wu W, Xia Y, Chen D, Wang X. miR-20a contributes to endometriosis by regulating NTN4 expression. Mol Biol Rep 2014; 41 (9) 5793-5797
30 Shen Q, Cicinnati VR, Zhang X , et al. Role of microRNA-199a-5p and discoidin domain receptor 1 in human hepatocellular carcinoma invasion. Mol Cancer 2010; 9: 227
31 Cheung HH, Davis AJ, Lee TL , et al. Methylation of an intronic region regulates miR-199a in testicular tumor malignancy. Oncogene 2011; 30 (31) 3404-3415
32 Dai L, Gu L, Di W. MiR-199a attenuates endometrial stromal cell invasiveness through suppression of the IKKβ/NF-κB pathway and reduced interleukin-8 expression. Mol Hum Reprod 2012; 18 (3) 136-145
33 Dai L, Lou W, Zhu J, Zhou X, Di W. MiR-199a inhibits the angiogenic potential of endometrial stromal cells under hypoxia by targeting HIF-1α/VEGF pathway. Int J Clin Exp Pathol 2015; 8 (5) 4735-4744
34 Guo C, Sah JF, Beard L, Willson JK, Markowitz SD, Guda K. The noncoding RNA, miR-126, suppresses the growth of neoplastic cells by targeting phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase signaling and is frequently lost in colon cancers. Genes Chromosomes Cancer 2008; 47 (11) 939-946
35 Feng R, Chen X, Yu Y , et al. miR-126 functions as a tumour suppressor in human gastric cancer. Cancer Lett 2010; 298 (1) 50-63
36 Liu S, Gao S, Wang XY, Wang DB. Expression of miR-126 and Crk in endometriosis: miR-126 may affect the progression of endometriosis by regulating Crk expression. Arch Gynecol Obstet 2012; 285 (4) 1065-1072
37 Utsunomiya H, Cheng YH, Lin Z , et al. Upstream stimulatory factor-2 regulates steroidogenic factor-1 expression in endometriosis. Mol Endocrinol 2008; 22 (4) 904-914
38 Bulun SE, Utsunomiya H, Lin Z , et al. Steroidogenic factor-1 and endometriosis. Mol Cell Endocrinol 2009; 300 (01/02): 104-108
39 Xue Q, Lin Z, Yin P , et al. Transcriptional activation of steroidogenic factor-1 by hypomethylation of the 5′ CpG island in endometriosis. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2007; 92 (8) 3261-3267
40 Shen L, Yang S, Huang W , et al. MicroRNA23a and microRNA23b deregulation derepresses SF-1 and upregulates estrogen signaling in ovarian endometriosis. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2013; 98 (4) 1575-1582
41 Götte M, Mohr C, Koo CY , et al. miR-145-dependent targeting of junctional adhesion molecule A and modulation of fascin expression are associated with reduced breast cancer cell motility and invasiveness. Oncogene 2010; 29 (50) 6569-6580
42 Zheng B, Xue X, Zhao Y, Chen J, Xu CY, Duan P. The differential expression of microRNA-143,145 in endometriosis. Iran J Reprod Med 2014; 12 (8) 555-560
43 Adammek M, Greve B, Kässens N , et al. MicroRNA miR-145 inhibits proliferation, invasiveness, and stem cell phenotype of an in vitro endometriosis model by targeting multiple cytoskeletal elements and pluripotency factors. Fertil Steril 2013; 99 (5) 1346-1355.e5
44 Chen J, Gu L, Ni J, Hu P, Hu K, Shi YL. MiR-183 regulates ITGB1P expression and promotes invasion of endometrial stromal cells. BioMed Res Int 2015; 2015: 340218
45 Kästingschäfer CS, Schäfer SD, Kiesel L, Götte M. miR-142-3p is a novel regulator of cell viability and proinflammatory signalling in endometrial stroma cells. Reprod Biomed Online 2015; 30 (5) 553-556
46 Graham A, Falcone T, Nothnick WB. The expression of microRNA-451 in human endometriotic lesions is inversely related to that of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) and regulates MIF expression and modulation of epithelial cell survival. Hum Reprod 2015; 30 (3) 642-652
47 Joshi NR, Su RW, Chandramouli GV , et al. Altered expression of microRNA-451 in eutopic endometrium of baboons (Papio anubis) with endometriosis. Hum Reprod 2015; 30 (12) 2881-2891
48 Liu XJ, Bai XG, Teng YL, Song L, Lu N, Yang RQ. miRNA-15a-5p regulates VEGFA in endometrial mesenchymal stem cells and contributes to the pathogenesis of endometriosis. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci 2016; 20 (16) 3319-3326