Effect of microRNA, miR-215, on gene expression and metabolism of porcine intestinal epithelial cells

MiR-215 maintains a high level of expression in healthy pig intestine and is decreased in lesions or injuries. To clarify the influence of miR-215 on the porcine intestine, miR-215 mimic/inhibitor was transfected into the intestinal porcine epithelial cell line, J2 (IPEC-J2) to overexpress or suppress the expression of miR-215. The treated cells were subjected to various functional assays. The effect of miR-215 on global gene expression was detected using high-throughput sequencing on the BGISEQ500 platform; cell proliferation was evaluated using a Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8); and the role of miR215 on cellular metabolism was tested using non-targeted metabonomics and liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis. Our results revealed that miR-215 promoted cell proliferation in IPEC-J2, up-regulated the expression of the ribosomal protein family, and downregulated the expression of oncogenesis-related genes and tumour-suppressor genes. Results of the RNA sequencing and the metabonomics detection reveal that miR-215 affects the PI3K-Akt signalling pathway. Our results contribute to further research on miR-215 in the regulation of barrier function and metabolism in the porcine intestine.