Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Jul 18, 2025; 16(7): 107045
Published online Jul 18, 2025. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v16.i7.107045
miR-365 promotes HOXA9-mediated differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells to nucleus pulposus cells by interacting with HIF-1α
Zhong-Zheng Zhi, Tao Liu, Jian Kang, Fu-Chao Zhou, Xiao-Dong Liu, Zhi-Min He
Zhong-Zheng Zhi, Tao Liu, Jian Kang, Fu-Chao Zhou, Zhi-Min He, Department of Spine Surgery, Shanghai Fourth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200434, China
Xiao-Dong Liu, Department of Orthopedics, Yangpu Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200090, China
Co-first authors: Zhong-Zheng Zhi and Tao Liu.
Co-corresponding authors: Xiao-Dong Liu and Zhi-Min He.
Author contributions: Zhi ZZ, Liu T, and Kang J participated in writing the manuscript; Zhi ZZ, Liu T, and Zhou FC performed project administration and data collection; Zhi ZZ, Liu T, and Kang J performed the data curation, formal analysis, and validation; Liu XD and He ZM helped examine and correct the manuscript; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Academic Subject Boosting Plan in Shanghai Fourth People's Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University School of Medicine, No. SY-XKZT-2019-3002; Academic Project from the Health Commission of Hongkou District, Shanghai, No. 2202-25; and Clinical Key Specialty Construction Unit from The Health Commission of Hongkou District, Shanghai, No. HKLCZD2024B03.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: Ethical approval was obtained from Animal Care and Use Committee of Wetry Biology (ID: WTPZ20230612001).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: Requests for data and materials should be addressed to Zhi-Min He.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhi-Min He, Department of Spine Surgery, Shanghai Fourth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, No. 1279 Sanmen Road, Hongkou District, Shanghai 200434, China. zzz0327@tongji.edu.cn
Received: March 14, 2025
Revised: April 14, 2025
Accepted: May 27, 2025
Published online: July 18, 2025
Processing time: 125 Days and 23.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This study investigates the role of miR-365 in promoting the differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) for degenerative disc disease (DDD) treatment. We reveal that miR-365 enhances MSC proliferation and inhibits apoptosis, while promoting NPC-related marker expression. Mechanistically, miR-365 targets HOXA9, which in turn regulates HIF-1α, Sox9, and Kdm6a. This finding highlights miR-365 as a potential therapeutic target for DDD, offering a novel strategy to address the loss of NPCs.