miR-17-92 facilitates neuronal differentiation of transplanted neural stem/precursor cells under neuroinflammatory conditions

BACKGROUND: Neural stem/precursor cells (NSCs) are of particular interest because of their potential application in cell therapy for brain damage. However, most brain injury cases are followed with neuroinflammatory stress, which affects the lineage selection of grafted NSCs by promoting astrocytogenesis, thus hampering the potential for neural replacement. The present study investigated the role of miR-17-92 in protecting against detrimental effects of neuroinflammation on NSC differentiation in cell therapy. METHODS: NSCs were treated with conditioned medium from lesioned astrocytes with/without neutralizing antibodies of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) or/and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), respectively. Afterward, the levels of p-STAT3 and p-JAK2 were determined by western blotting while expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and β-tubulin III was assessed by immunostaining. The activation of JAK-STAT pathway and cell differentiation were also evaluated after we overexpressed miR-17-92 in NSCs under different neuroinflammatory conditions. After the transplantation of miR-17-92-overexpressing NSCs into injured mouse cortex, PH3, nestin, GFAP, and NeuN were analyzed by immunostaining. In addition, motor coordination of mice was evaluated by rotarod test. RESULTS: Conditioned medium from lesioned astrocytes activated JAK-STAT pathway and facilitated astrocytic differentiation in NSCs while neutralizing antibodies of LIF and CNTF remarkably attenuated such effects. miR-17-92 cluster repressed the expression of multiple proteins including GP130, CNTFR, JAK2, and STAT3 in JAK-STAT pathway. Overexpression of miR-17-92 in NSCs systematically blocked the activation of JAK-STAT pathway mediated by LIF and CNTF, which facilitated neuronal differentiation in vitro. Furthermore, miR-17-92 increased neuronal generation of grafted NSCs and reduced astrogliosis, which resulted in the improvement of motor coordination of brain-injured mice. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that miR-17-92 promotes neuronal differentiation of grafted NSCs under neuroinflammatory condition via inhibition of multiple proteins in JAK-STAT pathway. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12974-016-0685-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.