{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T03:32:07Z","timestamp":1760239927928,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,1,21]],"date-time":"2019-01-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1548028800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Genes"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: CD34+ Endothelial Progenitor Cells (EPCs) play an important role in the recovery of injured endothelium and contribute to atherosclerosis (ATH) pathogenesis. Previously we described a potential atherogenic role for miR-125 that we aimed to confirm in this work. Methods: Microarray hybridization, TaqMan Low Density Array (TLDA) cards, qPCR, and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were used to analyze expression of the miRNAs, proteins and transcripts here studied. Results: Here we have demonstrated an increase of resident CD34-positive cells in the aortic tissue of human and mice during ATH progression, as well as the presence of clusters of CD34-positive cells in the intima and adventitia of human ATH aortas. We introduce miR-351, which share the seed sequence with miR-125, as a potential effector of CD34. We show a splicing event at an internal\/cryptic splice site at exon 8 of the murine Cd34 gene (exonic-switch) that would regulate the differential accession of miRNAs (including miR-125) to the coding region or to the 3\u2019UTR of Cd34. Conclusions: We introduce new potential mediators of ATH progression (CD34 cell-clusters, miR-351), and propose a new mechanism of miRNA action, linked to a cryptic splicing site in the target-host gene, that would regulate the differential accession of miRNAs to their cognate binding sites.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/genes10010070","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,1,22]],"date-time":"2019-01-22T03:08:22Z","timestamp":1548126502000},"page":"70","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["An Exonic Switch Regulates Differential Accession of microRNAs to the Cd34 Transcript in Atherosclerosis Progression"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1824-9141","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Miguel","family":"Hueso","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Nephrology, Hospital Universitari Bellvitge and Bellvitge Research Institute (IDIBELL), L\u2019Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907 Barcelona, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Josep M.","family":"Cruzado","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Nephrology, Hospital Universitari Bellvitge and Bellvitge Research Institute (IDIBELL), L\u2019Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907 Barcelona, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Joan","family":"Torras","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Nephrology, Hospital Universitari Bellvitge and Bellvitge Research Institute (IDIBELL), L\u2019Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907 Barcelona, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0870-6767","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Estanis","family":"Navarro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Independent Researcher, Esplugues de Llobregat, 08950 Barcelona, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,1,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hueso, M., Cruzado, J.M., Torras, J., and Navarro, E. 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