Association of MIR17HG and MIR155HG gene variants with steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head in the population of northern China

Steroid-induced osteonecrosis

Osteonecrosis associated with the use of glucocorticoids is a severe, potentially debilitating complication. In broader terms, it commonly involves the femoral head with secondary hip osteoarthritis. Osteonecrosis can also be caused by trauma and other non-traumatic factors besides steroid treatment. Nonetheless, glucocorticoid use is frequently observed in clinical settings in which this represents a common therapeutic option, including general practice, rheumatology and clinical immunology, among others. The pathogenesis involves genetic components, vascular impairment, adipocyte hypertrophy, and increased intraosseous pressure, ultimately leading to marrow and bone ischemia and necrosis and the process rapidly becomes irreversible. Osteonecrosis manifests with pain and impaired motility while the diagnosis is usually made with magnetic resonance imaging allowing early detection and potentially (dependent on the patient's needs for steroids and stage) timely management with conservative options, followed by joint replacement at late stages. In this review we discuss the pathogenesis, risk factors, diagnosis, staging, and management of this complication associated with glucocorticoid treatment.

Downregulation of growth plate genes involved with the onset of femoral head separation in young broilers

Femoral head separation (FHS) is characterized by the detachment of growth plate (GP) and articular cartilage, occurring in tibia and femur. However, the molecular mechanisms involved with this condition are not completely understood. Therefore, genes and biological processes (BP) involved with FHS were identified in 21-day-old broilers through RNA sequencing of the femoral GP. 13,487 genes were expressed in the chicken femoral head transcriptome of normal and FHS-affected broilers. From those, 34 were differentially expressed (DE; FDR ≤0.05) between groups, where all of them were downregulated in FHS-affected broilers. The main BP were enriched in receptor signaling pathways, ossification, bone mineralization and formation, skeletal morphogenesis, and vascularization. RNA-Seq datasets comparison of normal and FHS-affected broilers with 21, 35 and 42 days of age has shown three shared DE genes (FBN2, C1QTNF8, and XYLT1) in GP among ages. Twelve genes were exclusively DE at 21 days, where 10 have already been characterized (SHISA3, FNDC1, ANGPTL7, LEPR, ENSGALG00000049529, OXTR, ENSGALG00000045154, COL16A1, RASD2, BOC, GDF10, and THSD7B). Twelve SNPs were associated with FHS (p < 0.0001). Out of those, 5 were novel and 7 were existing variants located in 7 genes (RARS, TFPI2, TTI1, MAP4K3, LINK54, and AREL1). We have shown that genes related to chondrogenesis and bone differentiation were downregulated in the GP of FHS-affected young broilers. Therefore, these findings evince that candidate genes pointed out in our study are probably related to the onset of FHS in broilers.

MIR17HG: A Cancerogenic Long-Noncoding RNA in Different Cancers

LncRNA MIR17HG, located at chromosome 13q31, plays an inevitable role in promoting tumor progressions, such as tumorigenesis, proliferation, and metastasis. Besides, lncRNA MIR17HG is rare due to its open reading frame (ORF), which can be translated to produce protein. By systematically retrieval, we summarized that MIR17HG is an emerging lncRNA that exhibits carcinogenically in osteosarcoma (OS), glioma, cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC), colorectal cancer (CRC), gastric cancer (GC), atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors (ATRT). Furthermore, a high expression level of MIR17HG protein is also linked with meningioma. Additionally, MIR17HG polymorphisms in glioma, CRC, liver cancer (LC), breast cancer (BC), head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), and multiple myeloma (MM) also have a large influence on cancer susceptibility, prognosis, and so on. Collectively, long non-coding RNA MIR17HG's tumor-stimulative role could be a promising therapeutic target. Besides, by investigating patients' MIR17HG single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), clinicians could also personalize the productive interventions in gene therapy or predict the diagnosis/prognosis precisely.