MiR-26a regulates the expression of serum IGF-1 in patients with osteoporosis and its effect on proliferation and apoptosis of mouse chondrocytes

OBJECTIVES: To examine the effects of the regulation on IGF-1 by miR-26a on the serum of patients with osteoporosis (OP) and apoptosis and proliferation of chondrocytes of mice with OP. METHODS: Totally 47 patients with OP treated in our hospital between July 2018 and November 2019 were selected as the research group, and 42 healthy individuals in physical examination over this period were selected as the control group. Serum was sampled from each participant in both groups, and miR-26a in the sampled serum was quantified and compared. In addition, chondrocytes were sampled from mice with OP. The changes of proliferation and apoptosis of the chondrocytes were analyzed via MTT and flow cytometry, and the levels of Caspase3, Caspase9, Bax, and Bcl-2 were quantified by western blot (WB) assay. RESULTS: MiR-26a was expressed highly in the serum of patients with OP and chondrocytes of mice with OP, while IGF-1 was lowly expressed in them. According to the dual-luciferase reporter assay, there was a targeting correlation between miR-26a and IGF-1, and suppressing miR-26a significantly up-regulated the expression and protein level of IGF-1. CONCLUSIONS: MiR-26a can serve as a biological marker for the diagnosis of OP, and it can suppress the proliferation of chondrocytes and promote their apoptosis by regulating IGF-1.