MicroRNA-181b negatively regulates the proliferation of human epidermal keratinocytes in psoriasis through targeting TLR4

Our study aims to explore the role of microRNA-181b (miR-181b) and TLR in the regulation of cell proliferation of human epidermal keratinocytes (HEKs) in psoriasis. Twenty-eight patients diagnosed with psoriasis vulgaris were selected as a case group with their lesional and non-lesional skin tissues collected. A control group consisted of 20 patients who underwent plastic surgery with their healthy skin tissues collected. Real-time quantitative fluorescence polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the expressions of miR-181b and TLR4 in HEKs of healthy skin, psoriatic lesional skin and non-lesional skin respectively. The 3 untranslated region (3UTR) of TLR4 combined with miR-181b was verified by a dual-luciferase reporter assay. Western blotting and bromodeoxyuridine were applied for corresponding detection of TLR4 expression and cell mitosis. The expression of miR-181b in HEKs of psoriatic lesional skin was less than healthy skin and psoriatic non-lesional skin. In psoriatic lesional and non-lesional skin, TLR4-positive cell rates and the number of positive cells per square millimetre were higher than healthy skin. The dual-luciferase reporter assay verified that miR-181b targets TLR4. HEKs transfected with miR-181b mimics had decreased expression of TLR4, along with the decrease of mitotic indexes and Brdu labelling indexes. However, HEKs transfected with miR-181b inhibitors showed increased TLR4 expression, mitotic indexes and Brdu labelling indexes. HEKs transfected with both miR-181b inhibitors and siTLR4 had decreased mitotic indexes and Brdu labelling indexes. These results indicate that miR-181b can negatively regulate the proliferation of HEKs in psoriasis by targeting TLR4.