Page 6 - M. Immunology

[M. Immunology-4]

The function of microRNA-155 and Chronic Chorioamnionitis

in Swan 71, human trophoblasts

Hee-Na Jeong¹˙#, So-Yul Eom¹˙#, Sun-Shim Choi¹, Hae-Ryeong Lim¹˙*, Deug-Chan Lee¹˙*

¹Department of Medical biotechnology, College of Biomedical Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon-

si, Gangwon-do 200-701, Republic of Korea

MicroRNAs are non-coding RNA, single-stranded RNA, consisting of 22 nucleotides that target mRNA by binding
to complementary sequences to induce RNA silencing. Chronic choroiditis (CCA) is a pregnancy disease caused by

maternal immune cells infiltrating into the amnion surrounding the fetus and the chorion that invade the

endometrium. In this study, we confirmed the fetal membrane of CCA, Acute Chorioamnionitis (ACA) and No-
inflammation (normal) and found that miR-155 was overexpressed in the fetal membranes of CCA. Also differentially
expressed genes (DEGs) by elevated miR-155 in trophoblasts that constitute the fetal membrane were investigated

using microarray analysis. Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) are intracellular transcription
factors involved in cell migration and cell apoptosis and have been reported that it was suppressed in inflammation

of a fetus caused by CCA. We confirmed that miR-155 directly targets KPNA1, result in suppression of KPNA1
protein. Knock-down of KPNA1 inhibits the translocation of phosphorylated STAT3 into the nucleus. In conclusion,

we demonstrated that miR-155 targets KPNA1 and thereby inhibits STAT3 signaling in human trophoblast cell, Swan
71.