{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T02:58:29Z","timestamp":1760151509332,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,24]],"date-time":"2022-03-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1648080000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation","award":["No. 2019B1515210011"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["No. 2019B1515210011"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Scientific Foundation of China","award":["No. 31572475"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["No. 31572475"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Genes"],"abstract":"<jats:p>MicroRNAs (miRNAs) control the proliferation of thymic epithelial cells (TECs) for thymic involution. Previous studies have shown that expression levels of miR-152-3p were significantly increased in the thymus and TECs during the involution of the mouse thymus. However, the possible function and potential molecular mechanism of miR-152-3p remains unclear. This study identified that the overexpression of miR-152-3p can inhibit, while the inhibition of miR-152-3p can promote, the proliferation of murine medullary thymic epithelial cell line 1 (MTEC1) cells. Moreover, miR-152-3p expression was quantitatively analyzed to negatively regulate Smad2, and the Smad2 gene was found to be a direct target of miR-152-3p, using the luciferase reporter assay. Importantly, silencing Smad2 was found to block the G1 phase of cells and inhibit the cell cycle, which was consistent with the overexpression of miR-152-3p. Furthermore, co-transfection studies of siRNA\u2013Smad2 (siSmad2) and the miR-152-3p mimic further established that miR-152-3p inhibited the proliferation of MTEC1 cells by targeting Smad2 and reducing the expression of Smad2. Taken together, this study proved miR-152-3p to be an important molecule that regulates the proliferation of TECs and therefore provides a new reference for delaying thymus involution and thymus regeneration.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/genes13040576","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,25]],"date-time":"2022-03-25T00:05:18Z","timestamp":1648166718000},"page":"576","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["miR-152-3p Represses the Proliferation of the Thymic Epithelial Cells by Targeting Smad2"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Ying","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xintong","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Qingru","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Fenfen","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lin","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bishuang","family":"Gong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kaizhao","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yongjiang","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5376-7289","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yugu","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3099","DOI":"10.3389\/fimmu.2019.03099","article-title":"Thymic Epithelial Cells Contribute to Thymopoiesis and T Cell Development","volume":"10","author":"Wang","year":"2020","journal-title":"Front. 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