Maternally expressed miR‐379/miR‐544 cluster is dispensable for testicular development and spermatogenesis in mice

Lack of miR-379/miR-544 Cluster Resists High-Fat Diet-Induced Obesity and Prevents Hepatic Triglyceride Accumulation in Mice

“…A higher expression level of the miR-379/miR-544 cluster transcripts in perinatal livers was observed, whereas lower expression was detected in adult livers ( Figure 2C and Supplementary Figure 2C ). This expression pattern in the liver was similar to that reported for the miR-379/miR-544 cluster in testis ( Cao et al, 2018 ). Given that, we assume that the miR-379/miR-544 cluster plays a role in mouse liver development.…”

“…In addition, the differentially expressed genes between WT and the miR-379/miR-544 cluster KO mice fed on HFD are involved in metabolic processes, including oxidation-reduction process, lipid metabolic process, and cell differentiation. Interestingly, although the miR-379/miR-544 mutants did not exhibit other overt phenotypes except CLPG-like muscular hypertrophy under normal laboratory conditions ( Gao et al, 2015 ; Cao et al, 2018 ), the miR-379/miR-544 KO-HFD mice displayed resistance to obesity and moderate hepatic steatosis in this study. These consequences broadened the vision of the role of miR-379/miR-544 under HFD conditions, which supports the notion that the function of miRNAs could be enhanced under conditions of stress ( Leung and Sharp, 2010 ).…”

“…Given that, we assume that the miR-379/miR-544 cluster plays a role in mouse liver development. To investigate the physiological role of the miR-379/miR-544 cluster in vivo , we generated a knockout (KO) mouse line as our previous report described ( Cao et al, 2018 ). Our breeding strategy was validated by showing the miR-379, miR-411 , and miR-543 were not detected by RT-qPCR analysis in several tissues of WT and KO mice at postnatal day 20 (P20) ( Figure 2D ).…”

“…Since the miR-379/miR-544 KO mice did not exhibit any overt abnormalities under basal conditions ( Cao et al, 2018 ), we subjected WT and KO mice to metabolic stress by feeding an HFD for 10 weeks to further determine the role of miR-379/miR-544 in the steatotic liver (hereafter named WT-HFD and KO-HFD mice, respectively). Surprisingly, as shown in Figure 3A , WT mice displayed a significant increase in the body weight after HFD induced for 6 weeks, but KO mice gained much less body weight and were resistant to obesity induced by the HFD.…”

“…The miR-379/miR-544 cluster knockout (KO) mice generated as described previously ( Cao et al, 2018 ) and maintained under a 12-h dark/light cycle in a specific pathogen-free animal facility. Mice were fed a chow diet with 10% kcal fat (Research Diet D12450B) or a high-fat diet with 60% kcal fat-containing diet (Research Diet D12492) for 10 weeks.…”