AUTHOR=Gindin Yevgeniy , Jiang Yuan , Francis Princy , Walker Robert L., Abaan Ogan D., Zhu Yuelin J., Meltzer Paul S. TITLE=miR-23a impairs bone differentiation in osteosarcoma via down-regulation of GJA1 JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics VOLUME=6 YEAR=2015 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2015.00233 DOI=10.3389/fgene.2015.00233 ISSN=1664-8021 ABSTRACT=
Osteosarcoma is the most common type of bone cancer in children and adolescents. Impaired differentiation of osteoblast cells is a distinguishing feature of this aggressive disease. As improvements in survival outcomes have largely plateaued, better understanding of the bone differentiation program may provide new treatment approaches. The miRNA cluster miR-23a~27a~24-2, particularly miR-23a, has been shown to interact with genes important for bone development. However, global changes in gene expression associated with functional gain of this cluster have not been fully explored. To better understand the relationship between miR-23a expression and bone cell differentiation, we carried out a large-scale gene expression analysis in HOS cells. Experimental results demonstrate that over-expression of miR-23a delays differentiation in this system. Downstream bioinformatic analysis identified miR-23a target gene connexin-43 (