%0 Journal Article %T MicroRNA let-7c inhibits Bcl-xl expression and regulates ox-LDL-induced endothelial apoptosis %A Bing Qin1 %A Bo Xiao1 %A Desheng Liang2 %A Ye Li1 %A Ting Jiang1 & Huan Yang1 %A * %J BMB Reports %D 2012 %I Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology %X Endothelial cells (ECs) apoptosis induced by oxidizedlow-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) is thought to play a criticalrole in atherosclerosis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class ofnoncoding RNAs that posttranscriptionally regulate the expressionof genes involved in diverse cell functions, includingdifferentiation, growth, proliferation, and apoptosis. MiRNAlet-7 family is known to be involved in the regulation of cellapoptosis. However, the function of let-7 in ox-LDL inducedECs apoptosis and atherosclerosis is still unknown. Here, weshow that let-7c expression was markedly up-regulated inox-LDL induced apoptotic human umbilical cord veinendothelial cells (HUVECs). Let-7c over-expression enhancedapoptosis in ECs whereas inhibition of let-7c could partlyalleviate apoptotic cell death mediated by ox-LDL. Searchingfor how let-7c affected apoptosis, we discovered that antiapoptoticprotein Bcl-xl was a direct target of let-7c in ECs. Ourdata suggest that let-7c contributes to endothelial apoptosisthrough suppression of Bcl-xl. %K Apoptosis %K Atherosclerosis %K Bcl-xl %K HUVECs %K MicroRNA %U http://www.jbmb.or.kr/jbmb/pdf.php?data=MTMwMTIyMTdAcGRmX3JhaW50cmFjZV9sZWV5c0AlNUI0NS04JTVEMTIwODMwMTcxOV8lMjg0NjQtNDY5JTI5Qk1CXzEyLTAzMy5wZGY=