Mir-144 Regulates The Proliferation Of Human Vascular Endothelial Cells Through Targeting Srf

Atherosclerosis, which constitutes the single most important contributor to coronary artery disease (CAD), is the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. MiR-144 has been well investigated in many human diseases, while its role in atherosclerosis remains obscure. Here, we found that miR-144 is significantly up-regulated in the plasma of CAD patients by qRT-PCR. In addition, we identified serum response factor (SRF) as a potential target of miR-144 in Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) by luciferase reporter assay and western blot. Results from MTT assays and flow cytometry showed that overexpression of miR-144 significantly inhibited cell proliferation, increased apoptosis and induced more cells arrest in G1/S phase in HUVEC cells. While downregulation of miR-144 in HUVEC cells showed an adverse effect. Moreover, we found that restoration of SRF partially attenuated the inhibitory effect of miR-144 on HUVEC cells proliferation. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that miR-144 regulates the proliferation of human vascular endothelial cells through targeting SRF and suggested that miR-144 might be a helpful therapeutic target for atherosclerosis treatment in the future.