Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have pivotal roles in regulating ischemic stroke (IS), including lncRNA rhabdomyosarcoma 2-associated transcript (RMST). The purpose of this report is to discover the functional mechanism of RMST. The expression detection of RMST, microRNA-377 (miR-377) and Semaphorin 3A (SEMA3A) was performed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Oxygen and glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R) in N2a cells was used to mimic IS environment in vitro. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and flow cytometry were implemented to assess cell viability and apoptosis. Oxidative stress was analyzed via assaying the associated indicators. Dual-luciferase reporter, RNA pull-down and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays were jointly administrated for binding analysis between targets. SEMA3A protein level was measured using western blot. We found in IS serum samples, RMST was upregulated while miR-377 was downregulated. After the establishment of OGD/R-induced IS model, we found that the decreased RMST abrogated the OGD/R-triggered apoptosis and oxidative stress. Through the target analysis, miR-377 was shown to be sponged by RMST and the effects of RMST knockdown on OGD/R-induced cell injuries were related to miR-377 upregulation. Besides, SEMA3A served as a target gene of miR-377 and the mitigation of miR-377 for ischemic brain damages was achieved by downregulating SEMA3A. What's more, RMST could regulate SEMA3A by playing the sponge action on miR-377. Collectively, all these findings clarified that RMST repression retarded IS progression in vitro via SEMA3A downregulation by targeting miR-377, which represented a different perspective in the pathological development of IS.
Keywords: Ischemia stoke; RMST; SEMA3A; miR-377.