MicroRNA-146 attenuates lipopolysaccharide induced ovarian dysfunction by inhibiting the TLR4/NF- κB signaling pathway

Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is a disease that seriously affects women’s reproductive function and even leads to lifelong infertility. Little is known about the mechanism of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ovarian dysfunction. Thus, we aimed to identify the role of the up-regulation of microRNA (miRNA)-146 expression offered protection against ovarian dysfunction by inhibiting the toll-like receptor (TLR) 4, TLR4/phosphorylated (p)-nuclear factor (NF)-κB signaling pathway and inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a and Interleukin (IL)-6. In an in vivo study, we established an LPS-induced ovarian dysfunction mouse model. The mouse ovarian granulosa cells were transfected with miR-146 mimic or negative controls or inhibitor and then treated with LPS. Therefore, cell viability, cells apoptosis, IL-6 and TNF-a, TLR4, NF- κB were assessed, respectively. These results demonstrated that the up-regulation of miRNA-146 expression may protect against LPS-induced ovarian dysfunction and markedly increased the cell viability, and significantly reduced the ovarian granulosa cells apoptotic rate, and down-regulated IL-6 and TNF-a expression. In addition, miRNA-146 exerted protective ovarian functions might be via inhibiting TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway. In summary, we reveal the up-regulation of miRNA-146 expression mitigated ovarian dysfunction by negatively regulating expression of the IL-6 and TNF-a, which may shed light on the potential molecular mechanisms of overexpression of miRNA-146 may reversed the ovarian dysfunction by inhibiting the TLR4/ NF-κB signaling pathway.