MicroRNA-125b modulates inflammatory chemokine CCL4 expression in immune cells and its reduction causes CCL4 increase with age

Chemokines play a pivotal role in regulating the immune response through a tightly controlled expression. Elevated levels of inflammatory chemokines commonly occur with aging but the mechanism underlying this age-associated change is not fully understood. Here, we report the role of microRNA-125b (miR-125b) in regulating inflammatory CC chemokine 4 (CCL4) expression in human immune cells and its altered expression with aging. We first analyzed the mRNA level of CCL4 in eight different types of immune cells including CD4 and CD8 T-cell subsets (naïve, central and effector memory), B cells and monocytes in blood from both young (≤42 years) and old (≥70 years) adults. We observed that monocytes and naïve CD8 T cells expressed higher levels of CCL4 and exhibited an age-related increase in CCL4. We then found the level of miR-125b was inversely correlated with the level of CCL4 in these cells, and the level of miR-125b was reduced in monocytes and naïve CD8 T cells of the old compared to the young adults. Knock-down of miR-125b by shRNA in monocytes and naïve CD8 T cells led to an increase of CCL4 protein, whereas enhanced miR-125b expression by transfection in naïve CD8 T cells resulted in a reduction of the CCL4 mRNA and protein in response to stimulation. Finally, we demonstrated that miR-125b action requires the ‘seed’ sequence in 3′UTR of CCL4. Together these findings demonstrated that miR-125b is a negative regulator of CCL4 and its reduction is partially responsible for the age-related increase of CCL4.