Macrophages-derived exosomal lncRNA LIFR-AS1 promotes osteosarcoma cell progression via miR-29a/NFIA axis

BACKGROUND: Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common primary malignant bone tumor in young people. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) have been reported to play an important role in the development of osteosarcoma. However, the detailed molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown and need to be elucidated. Recently, exosomes have been reported as the crucial mediator between tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment. And a lot of lncRNAs have been reported to act as either oncogenes or tumor suppressors in osteosarcoma. In this research, we aim to explore the role of macrophages-derived exosomal lncRNA in osteosarcoma development and further elucidated the potential molecular mechanisms involved. METHODS: TAMs were differentiated from human mononuclear cells THP-1, and a high-throughput microarray assay was used to analyze the dysregulated lncRNAs and miRNAs in osteosarcoma cells co-cultured with macrophages-derived exosomes. Western blot, qRT-PCR assays, and Dual-luciferase reporter assay were used to verify the interaction among LIFR-AS1, miR-29a, and NFIA. Cck-8, EdU, colony formation assay, wound-healing, and transwell assay were performed to explore the characterize the proliferation and metastasis ability of OS cells. And qPCR, Western blots, immunohistochemistry, and cell immunofluorescence were used to detect the expression of relative genes or proteins. RESULTS: In this study, we found that THP-1-induced macrophage-derived exosomes could facilitate osteosarcoma cell progression both in vitro and in vivo. Then, the results of the high-throughput microarray assay showed that LIFR-AS1 was highly expressed and miR-29a was lowly expressed. Furthermore, LIFR-AS1 was identified as a miR-29a sponge, and NFIA was validated as a direct target of miR-29a. Functional assays demonstrated that knockdown of exosomal LIFR-AS1 could attenuate the promotion effects of macrophages-derived exosomes on osteosarcoma cell progression and miR-29a inhibition could reserve the effect of LIFR-AS1-knockdown exosomes. Correspondingly, NFIA-knockdown could partially reverse the tumor inhibition effect of miR-29a on osteosarcoma cells. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, macrophages-derived exosomal lncRNA LIFR-AS1 can promote osteosarcoma cell proliferation, invasion, and restrain cell apoptosis via miR-29a/NFIA axis, which can act as a potential novel therapeutic target for osteosarcoma therapy. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12935-021-01893-0.