LncRNA FOXC2-AS1 Regulated Proliferation and Apoptosis of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Through Targeting MiR-1253/FOXF1 Axis in Atherosclerosis

Objective: Atherosclerosis (AS) is the most dangerous factor for human death, which is responsible for coronary heart disease. Growing evidence has showed that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in the development of AS. In this study, we mainly aimed at investigating the roles of FOXC2-AS1 in AS patients.

Patients And Methods: RT-PCR was performed to detect the expressions of FOXC2-AS1 and miR-1253 in serum samples of AS patients (n=35) and healthy volunteer (n=35). The correlation between FOXC2-AS1 and miR-1253 was further analyzed. Human vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) were respectively treated with ox-LDL, IL-6, CRP, TNF-α and IL-8 to explore the affecting factors. P-FOXC2-AS1 was constructed and transfected into VSMCs. Cell proliferation abilities were measured by CCK-8 assay. Cell apoptotic rates were measured by flow cytometry (FACS) analysis. Western blot (WB) was performed to detect protein levels of FOXF1, Bcl-2, Bax and Cleaved Caspase3. Finally, luciferase gene reporter assay was performed to prove the relationships between FOXC2-AS1 and miR-1253, miR-1253 and FOXF1.

Results: We found that FOXC2-AS1 was significantly upregulated in AS patients, which could be induced by ox-LDL and IL-6 in VSMCs. MiR-1253 was decreased in AS patients, which was negatively correlated with FOXC2-AS1. Furthermore, FOXC2-AS1 overexpression promoted proliferation and inhibited apoptosis in VSMCs. Luciferase gene reporter assay showed that FOXC2-AS1 could bind to miR-1253 in VSMCs and 293 cells. Moreover, miR-1253 overexpression inhibited proliferation and promoted apoptosis of VSMCs. Luciferase reporter assay proved that miR-1253 could target at FOXF1 in VSMCs and 293 cells, which was reported to be associated with cell proliferation and apoptosis in some cancers. Additionally, miR-1253 mimic or GSK343, a FOXF1 inhibitor, was respectively transfected into VSMCs with p-FOXC2-AS1. Results showed that the promoted cell proliferation and inhibited cell apoptosis were reversed as well, confirming that FOXC2-AS1 promoted cell proliferation and inhibited apoptosis via miR-1253/FOXF1 signaling axis in AS patients.

Conclusions: According to the results, we found that FOXC2-AS1 was upregulated in AS patients; furthermore, FOXC2-AS1 overexpression promoted cell proliferation and inhibited cell apoptosis via targeting miR-1253/FOXF1 signaling axis. Our results elucidated a potential mechanism underlying the role of FOXC2-AS1, which might be used as a promising marker and a potential target for AS patients.