Abstract :
[en] Interleukin-6 (IL-6) plays important roles in the regulation of liver functions and promotes the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common primary liver cancer. Whereas protein-encoding genes are well-studied, the contribution of IL-6-regulated microRNAs (miRNAs) to its effects is largely unexplored. Similarly, little is known about miRNAs regulating key molecules of the IL-6/JAK/STAT3 signaling pathway.
In the main part of this thesis, cell-based high-throughput screenings systems were developed, allowing the identification of miRNAs interfering with the IL-6/JAK/STAT3 signaling. Out of 538 miRNA mimics, this dual screening approach followed by various validation steps (luciferase-3’UTR-reporter assays, western blot and flow cytometry analyses) allowed us to identify twelve miRNAs targeting STAT3, JAK1, SOCS3, IL6R and/or gp130, ten of them had not yet been reported as regulators of this pathway before.
In the second part of this work, microarray analyses revealed that primary hepatocytes are considerably more responsive to IL-6 stimulation regarding changes in their miRNomes than liver-derived cell lines. Despite their weaker response, one of the top regulated miRNA found in the primary hepatocytes, miR-146b-5p, could also be induced by IL-6-type cytokines (IL-6 and Oncostatin M) in cell lines. Its functional role(s) in hepatocytes are currently investigated. A larger, comparative study included additionally Interferon gamma and IL-27, cytokines with a STAT1-dominated response, and supplementary cell lines originating not only from the liver but also from other tissues. While all cytokines had profound effects on the mRNA transcriptomes, only very small to moderate changes were observed at the miRNome level, suggesting that the regulation mediated by cytokines mainly happens through the modulation of protein-coding genes rather than by fine-tuning via miRNAs.
Additionally, we analyzed expression of a broad panel of cytokines in sera of 125 patients with liver diseases (steatosis, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, HCC) by bead-based multiplex immunoassays. We observed that, for example, serum HGF, IL-6 and IL-8 levels increased in relation with the severeness of liver pathology while PDGF-BB and RANTES decreased. When investigating the impact of the patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing protein 3 variant I148M (PNPLA3 I148M), known to be a risk factor for the development of liver diseases, on the serum levels of cytokines, no significant differences could be observed between the different genotypes.
In this PhD thesis, we identified and characterized miRNAs relevant for the IL-6/JAK/STAT3 signaling pathway, including miR-146b-5p as an IL-6-inducible miRNA. Others like miR-194-5p,
miR-4473 and miR-548k were demonstrated to be negative regulators of this pathway and may be of potential therapeutic significance. In addition, we showed that, while miRNAs can modulate this pathway, IL-6 seems to rather regulate the mRNA transcriptome than the miRNome.
