Abstract: The study aimed to detect the miR-148a-3p expression in different tissues of mice, conduct bioinformatics analysis and construct gene network to further clarify the role of miR-148a-3p in the body. The stomach, lung, spleen, skin, liver, heart and kidney of 6-week-old male C57BL/6 J mice were used as research materials, and 3 parallel experiments were conducted with 3 replicates in each group. The qRT-PCR was used to analyze the miR-148a-3p expression in different tissues of mice. miBase was used to analyze the conservation of miR-148a-3p among different species, and to predict its transcription factor binding site through Promoter Scan and TRANSFAC. TargetScan, PicTar and miRanda were used to predict the target genes of miR-148a-3p, then the target genes intersection was took, and GO and KEGG analysis was performed. Cytoscape was used to construct a TF-miRNA-mRNA interaction network. The results of qRT-PCR showed that among all tissues, the expression level of miRNA-148a-3p was the highest in spleen (P<0.001), followed by liver (P<0.001), and gradually decreased in skin, stomach, heart, kidney and lung. Transcription factors such as bata-pol, CREB, E4F1 and NF-S could bind to miR-148a-3p and regulate its expression. GO enrichment and KEGG pathway analysis showed that the target genes of miR-148a-3p mainly involved in the functions of ion transport, acetylcholine-activated cation-selective channel activity, and external side of plasma membrane. Target genes were mainly involved in TGF-β, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and adhesion pathways. The TF-miRNA-mRNA interaction network was composed of 70 sites and 70 edges, including 5 transcription factors and 63 mRNAs. The results indicate that miR-148a-3p is highly expressed in mouse spleen tissues and is regulated by a variety of transcription factors, which is closely related to cancer development.

Key words: bioinformatics, miR-148a-3p, expression, function, cancer