Insulin-like growth factor 1 ameliorates pre-eclampsia by inhibiting zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 by up-regulation of microRNA-183.

As a common hypertensive complication of pregnancy, preeclampsia (PE) remains one of the leading causes of maternal and fetal with high morbidity and mortality worldwide. Much research has identified the vital functions of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) in PE treatment. However, the combined roles and molecular mechanism of IGF-1 and microRNAs (miRNAs) underlying PE remain unclear. Therefore, we first measured the expression of IGF-1, zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) and microRNA-183 (miR-183) expression in the placenta tissues of patients with PE by Western blot analysis and RT-qPCR. Interactions among IGF-1, ZEB1 and miR-183 were assessed by Western blot analysis, ChIP-PCR and dual-luciferase reporter gene assay. The effect of IGF-1 on the biological characteristics of trophoblast cells was investigated by CCK-8, colony formation assay and in vitro angiogenesis experiments after cells were transfected with si-IGF-1. Finally, a mouse eclampsia model induced by knockdown of IGF-1 was established to confirm the in vitro effect of IGF-1 on PE. We found that IGF-1, ZEB1 and miR-183 were highly expressed in the placental tissues of patients with PE. The knockdown of IGF-1 resulted in reduced proliferation and invasion of trophoblast cells and was accompanied by inhibited angiogenesis. ZEB1 was positively regulated by IGF-1 via ERK/MAPK pathway, which in turn inhibited miR-153 expression by binding to the miR-183 promoter. The in vitro experiments further confirmed that IGF-1 knockdown could induce PE. To sum up, IGF-1 knockdown elevated expression of miR-183 by downregulating ZEB1, thereby promoting deterioration of PE.