{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,27]],"date-time":"2026-09-27T02:56:20Z","timestamp":1790477780745,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,19]],"date-time":"2026-02-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1771459200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Cell Dev. Biol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Cadmium (Cd), a toxic heavy metal pollutant, poses a serious threat to environmental and health and exhibits pronounced hepatotoxicity. However, the underlying mechanisms\u2014particularly those involving microRNA (miRNA) regulation\u2014remain incompletely understood. In this study, an acute liver injury model was established in mice via oral gavage administration of cadmium chloride (18\u00a0\u03bcg\/L, 0.8\u00a0mL\/day). A comprehensive methodological approach was employed, including serum biochemical assays, histopathological examination, transmission electron microscopy, quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction acronym (PCR), and high-throughput miRNA sequencing combined with bioinformatic analyses, to systematically investigate the mechanisms of Cd-induced hepatotoxicity. The results demonstrated that Cd exposure led to marked hepatic injury, reflected by altered liver function indices, hepatocellular ultrastructural disruption, apoptosis, and inflammatory responses. However, these downstream pathological changes do not explain how the coordinated inflammatory and apoptotic responses are initiated at the molecular level, highlighting the need to identify upstream regulatory mechanisms. To explore upstream regulatory mechanisms, miRNA transcriptomic analysis indicated that the target genes of differentially expressed miRNAs are enriched in inflammation- and apoptosis-related pathways, including MAPK and TNF signaling. These results suggest a potential role for miRNA-mediated regulation in cadmium-induced liver injury in mice and provide a basis for further investigation of molecular responses to heavy metal exposure.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcell.2026.1787688","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,19]],"date-time":"2026-02-19T05:22:45Z","timestamp":1771478565000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Mechanistic insights into cadmium-induced hepatotoxicity mediated by dysregulation of microRNA expression"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Runcen","family":"Xu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, Yangzhou University","place":["Yangzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yiming","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Social Development, Yangzhou University","place":["Yangzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rui","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University","place":["Yangzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhifeng","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University","place":["Yangzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ye","family":"Feng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University","place":["Yangzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuan","family":"Yuan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Yangzhou University","place":["Yangzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhi","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, Yangzhou University","place":["Yangzhou, China"]},{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University","place":["Yangzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Le","family":"Hu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Northern Jiangsu People\u2019s Hospital Affiliated to Yangzhou University","place":["Yangzhou, China"]},{"name":"The Yangzhou School of Clinical Medicine of Dalian Medical University","place":["Yangzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"20","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cell.2018.03.006","article-title":"Metazoan MicroRNAs","volume":"173","author":"Bartel","year":"2018","journal-title":"Cell"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"228","DOI":"10.3390\/w15020228","article-title":"Assessment of heavy metal distribution and health risk of vegetable crops grown on soils amended with municipal solid waste compost for sustainable urban agriculture","volume":"15","author":"Bhardwaj","year":"2023","journal-title":"Water"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e04691","DOI":"10.1016\/j.heliyon.2020.e04691","article-title":"Heavy metal pollution in the environment and their toxicological effects on humans","volume":"6","author":"Briffa","year":"2020","journal-title":"Heliyon"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e05043","DOI":"10.2903\/j.efsa.2017.5043","article-title":"Dietary exposure assessment to perchlorate in the European population","volume":"15","year":"2017","journal-title":"EFSA J. 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