lncRNA NEAT1 ameliorates LPS-induced inflammation in MG63 cells by activating autophagy and suppressing the NLRP3 inflammasome

The mechanisms of inflammation in bone and joint tissue are complex and involve long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), which play an important role in this process. The aim of the present study was to screen out differentially expressed genes in human osteoblasts stimulated by inflammation, and to further explore the mechanisms underlying inflammatory responses and the functional activity of human osteoblasts through bioinformatics methods and in vitro experiments. For this purpose, MG63 cells were stimulated with various concentrations of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for different periods of time to construct an optimal inflammatory model and RNA sequencing was then performed on these cells. The levels of nuclear enriched abundant transcript 1 (NEAT1), various inflammatory factors, Nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) protein and osteogenesis-related proteins, as well as the levels of cell apoptosis- and cell cycle-related markers were measured in MG63 cells stimulated with LPS, transfected with NEAT1 overexpression plasmid and treated with bexarotene by western blot analysis, RT-qPCR, immunofluorescence, FISH, TEM and flow cytometry. There were 427 differentially expressed genes in the LPS-stimulated MG63 cells, in which NEAT1 was significantly downregulated. LPS upregulated the expression of inflammatory cytokines and NLRP3, inhibited the expression of autophagy-related and osteogenesis-related proteins, promoted apoptosis and altered the cell cycle, which was partially inhibited by NEAT1 overexpression and promoted by bexarotene. LPS stimulated inflammation in the MG63 cells and inhibited the retinoid X receptor (RXR)-α to downregulate the expression of NEAT1 and decrease levels of autophagy, which promoted the activation of NLRP3 and the release of inflammatory factors, and impaired the functional activity of osteoblasts, thus promoting the development of inflammation.