Objective: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a prevalent chronic orthopedic disease, but its relationship with the lncRNA OIP5 Antisense RNA 1(OIP5-AS1)/micro-30a-5p axis is still under investigation. This study was designed to explore the regulatory function of this axis on chondrocytes.
Patients and methods: A quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay was carried out to quantify lncRNA OIP5-AS1 and micro-30a-5p in cartilage tissues of patients with OA, and lncRNA OIP5-AS1 siRNA, micro-30a-5p mimics, and micro-30a-5p inhibitor vectors were constructed to analyze the functions of lncRNA OIP5-AS1/micro-30a-5p on chondrocytes. In addition, the Western blot was used to determine the levels of proteins in chondrocytes, the 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT)assay to determine the viability of chondrocytes, the flow cytometry to analyze apoptosis and cycle of them, and the Dual-Luciferase reporter gene assay to verify the targeting relationship between LncRNA OIP5-AS1 and micro-30a-5p.
Results: LncRNA OIP5-AS1 in cartilage tissues of patients with OA decreased, while micro-30a-5p in them increased and increased with apoptosis. Down-regulation of lncRNA OIP5-AS1 gave rise to increased micro-30a-5p, and up-regulation of micro-30a-5p or down-regulation of lncRNA OIP5-AS1 brought about cell apoptosis and inflammatory response, and inhibited cell proliferation, while up-regulation of micro-30a-5p suppressed cell apoptosis and inflammatory response, and accelerated cell proliferation. LncRNA OIP5-AS1 affected chondrocytes by negatively regulating micro-30a-5p.
Conclusions: LncRNA OIP5-AS1 inhibits the apoptosis and inflammatory response of chondrocytes and promotes their survival by targetedly inhibiting micro-30a-5p, and both up-regulation of lncRNA OIP5-AS1 and down-regulation of micro-30a-5p is beneficial to patients with OA.