Protective effect of hepatocyte-enriched lncRNA-Mir122hg by promoting hepatocyte proliferation in acute liver injury

Some long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), which harbor microRNAs in their gene sequence and are also known as microRNA host gene derived lncRNAs (lnc-MIRHGs), play a dominant role alongside miRNAs, or both perform biological functions synergistically or independently. However, only a small number of lnc-MIRHGs have been identified. Here, multiple liver injury datasets were analyzed to screen and identify the target lncRNA Mir122hg. Mir122hg was mainly enriched in liver tissues with human-mouse homology. In both CCl(4)-induced acute liver injury and Dgal/LPS-induced fulminant liver failure in mice, Mir122hg was sharply downregulated at the early stage, while a subsequent significant increase was only found in the CCl(4) group with liver recovery. Overexpression and silencing assays confirmed that Mir122hg played a protective role in acute injury by promoting hepatocyte proliferation in vivo and in vitro. Consistent with the results of gene enrichment analysis, Mir122hg binding to C/EBPα affected its transcriptional repression, promoted gene transcription of downstream chemokines, Cxcl2, Cxcl3, and Cxcl5, and exerted pro-proliferative effects on hepatocytes through activation of the AKT/GSK-3β/p27 signaling pathway by CXC/CXCR2 complexes. This study identifies a novel lncRNA with protective effects in acute liver injury and demonstrates that the binding of Mir122hg-C/EBPα promotes hepatocyte proliferation via upregulation of CXC chemokine and activation of AKT signaling.