MiR-144 regulates adipogenesis by mediating formation of C/EBPα-FoxO1 protein complex

Excessive adipogenesis caused obesity, which was a serious risk of health and led to a series of diseases, including type II diabetes (T2D) for example. Adipocyte as the basic unit of adipose tissue has emerged as one of significant target of the treatment of obesity-related metabolic syndromes by revealed its adipogenic molecular mechanism. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been demonstrated involving adipogenesis, and played a crucial role in the competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) effect. Besides that, C/EBP as a crucial adipogenic regulator still lacked epigenetic explanation during pre-adipocyte adipogenesis. In this study, we first verified FoxO1 was one of the ceRNA of C/EBP. They co-regulated adipogenesis through formed a protein complex that directly bound to its promoter to activate AdipoQ, and AdipoQ (Adiponectin) was a negative adipocytokines that suppressed adipogenesis, which played an important role in retaining adipogensis balance. Moreover, an adipose tissue specific enriched miRNA, miR-144 was the key regulator of the ceRNA effect between C/EBP and FoxO1, which mediated the C/EBP-FoxO1 complex formation, thus altered AdipoQ, furthermore regulated pre-adipocyte adipogenesis. This research will provide a new supplementary idea of the C/EBP epigenetic role in pre-adipocyte adipogenesis.