{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,28]],"date-time":"2026-08-28T16:26:16Z","timestamp":1787934376395,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,11,22]],"date-time":"2018-11-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1542844800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["81573119"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["81573119"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["81502796"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["81502796"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Silicosis is a very serious occupational disease and it features pathological manifestations of inflammatory infiltration, excessive proliferation of fibroblasts and massive depositions of the extracellular matrix in the lungs. Recent studies described the roles of a variety of microRNAs (miRNAs) in fibrotic diseases. Here, we aimed to explore the potential mechanism of miR-542-5p in the activation of lung fibroblasts. To induce a pulmonary fibrosis mouse model, silica suspension and the miR-542-5p agomir were administered to mice by intratracheal instillation and tail vein injection. We found that miR-542-5p was significantly decreased in mouse fibrotic lung tissues and up-regulation of miR-542-5p visually attenuated a series of fibrotic lesions, including alveolar structural damage, alveolar interstitial thickening and silica-induced nodule formation. The down-regulation of miR-542-5p was also observed in mouse fibroblast (NIH-3T3) treated with transforming growth factor \u03b21 (TGF-\u03b21). The proliferation and migration ability of NIH-3T3 cells were also inhibited by the transfection of miR-542-5p mimic. Integrin \u03b16 (Itga6), reported as a cell surface protein associated with fibroblast proliferation, was confirmed to be a direct target of miR-542-5p. The knockdown of Itga6 significantly inhibited the phosphorylation of FAK\/PI3K\/AKT. In conclusion, miR-542-5p has a potential function for reducing the proliferation of fibroblasts and inhibiting silica-induced pulmonary fibrosis, which might be partially realized by directly binding to Itga6. Our data suggested that miR-542-5p might be a new therapeutic target for silicosis or other pulmonary fibrosis.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms19123717","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,11,23]],"date-time":"2018-11-23T03:41:31Z","timestamp":1542944491000},"page":"3717","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":42,"title":["miR-542-5p Attenuates Fibroblast Activation by Targeting Integrin \u03b16 in Silica-Induced Pulmonary Fibrosis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Jiali","family":"Yuan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"},{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ping","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"},{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Honghong","family":"Pan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"},{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yan","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"},{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qi","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"},{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tiantian","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"},{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaoming","family":"Ji","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"},{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yi","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"},{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenxi","family":"Yao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"},{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lei","family":"Han","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Occupational Disease Prevention, Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing 210009, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chunhui","family":"Ni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"},{"name":"The Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,11,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"249","DOI":"10.4104\/pcrj.2013.00055","article-title":"Pneumoconiosis","volume":"22","author":"Cullinan","year":"2013","journal-title":"Prim. 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