Background: Angiogenesis is essential for the tissue engineering bone formation, and osteoblasts (OBs) has been proved to play an important role in angiogenesis via various pro-angiogenic factors. However, whether the mineralized osteoblast derived exosomes (MOB-Exos) and containing let-7f-5p can promote the angiogenesis of endothelial cells (ECs) is still unknown. Methods: MOB-Exos, let-7f-5p mimicked MOB-Exos (miR mimic group) and let-7f-5p inhibited MOB-Exos (miR inhibitor group) were respectively harvested from mineralized osteoblasts (MOBs) and then cocultured with bEnd.3. Besides, the Erk1/2 signaling pathway in ECs in miR mimic group was inhibited.Subsequently, CCK-8 assays, wound healing assays, transwell migration assays and tube formation assays were performed to detect the angiogenic capability of ECs. Dual luciferase reporter assays were conducted to verify the target genes of exosomal let-7f-5p.Results: The results showed that MOB-Exos could signi cantly promote the angiogenesis of ECs, which could be enhanced by mimicking exosomal let-7f-5p, and attenuated by inhibiting exosomal let-7f-5p.And the angiogenic capability of ECs was partly impaired after inhibiting the Erk1/2 signaling pathway despite co-cultured with let-7f-5p mimicked MOB-Exos. Moreover, let-7f-5p suppressed the luciferase activity of wide-type DUSP1, while mutation of DUSP1 abrogated the repressive ability of let-7f-5p.
Conclusion:Based the results, our study concluded that exosomal let-7f-5p derived from MOBs could promote the angiogenesis of ECs via activating DUSP1/Erk1/2 signaling pathway, which might be a promising target for tissue engineering bone formation.