Table 1.
MiRNAs involved in stem cells regulation, with relevant in vivo or in vitro evidence
| Stem cell type | miRNA | Regulation/expression | Target | Biologic effect/function | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Embryonic stem cells | miR-290–295 cluster | Upregulated | Pax6 and c-Myc | Regulation of ESC pluripotency maintenance, self-renewal, and reprogramming of somatic cells to an ESC-like state | Yuan et al. (2017) and Kaspi et al. (2013) |
| miR-182 | – | Nanog, Sox2, and Esrrb | Cell-to-cell variation allows them to diversify into new states | Chakraborty et al. (2020) | |
| miR-302–367 and miR-371–373 | – | DICER1 | Promotion of cell survival and self-renewal | Teijeiro et al. (2018) | |
| miR-148a, miR-148b and miR-152 | Upregulated | DLL1 | Promotion of cardiomyocyte differentiation | Fang et al. (2019) | |
| miR-184 | Downregulated | Wnt3 | Promotion of cardiomyocyte differentiation | Liu et al. (2020) | |
| Somatic stem cells | |||||
| Hematopoietic stem cells | miR-21 | Downregulated | PDCD4, p21, Ms4a3, Fcgr3, Ly6c1, Mpo, Csf1r, and Igsf6 | Disrupts HSPC differentiation, and reduction of quiescence and long-term repopulation potential | Hu et al. (2021) |
| miR-99 family | Upregulated | Mpl, Hoxa9, Meis1, Tie1, Angpt1 and HOXA1 | Differentiation in HSPCs, LSCs and AML cell lines | Gerrits et al. (2012) and Khalaj et al. (2017) | |
| miR-125a | Upregulated | C-kit | HPSC trade, self-renewal, migration, and clone’s lifespan | Wojtowicz et al. (2019) | |
| let-7 | – | Alox5 | HPSC maturation and migration | Jiang et al. (2017) | |
| miR-155 | Upregulated | Ship1, Cebpb, and Pu.1 | Promotion of myeloproliferation | Wallace et al. (2017) | |
| Neural stem cells | miR-9 | Upregulated | GSK3b | Maturation of neurons and the formation of neuron’s branching fibers | Gizak et al. (2020) |
| miR-124 | Upregulated | DACT1 and GSK3b | Proliferation of NSCs and induction of neuronal differentiation | Gizak et al. (2020) | |
| miR-376, miR-139, miR-218, miR-411, miR-127, miR-134, miR-370, miR-135, miR-382, miR-708, and miR-124 | Upregulated | DRP2, NVL, CNOT4, PTBP1, TLE1, and SFXN5 | Synergic regulation in neuronal differentiation and rescue of neurogenesis | Pons-Espinal et al. (2017) | |
| Bantam | Upregulated | Dacapo | Maintenance and mediation of the proliferative potential of neuroblasts | Banerjee and Roy (2017) | |
| miR-29b | Upregulated | Dnmt3a and Pou3f1 | Regulation of cell fate determination. Inhibition progeny of NC cells at the initial stage of neural differentiation | Xi et al. (2017) | |
| miR-219, miR-218–2, miR-nov-12a-1, miR-338–3, miR-10b, miR-204-a-1, miR-130b, miR-130c, miR-23, miR-24, and miR-196a | Upregulated |
miR-219 target gene: PDGFRα miR-10b and miR-196a target genes: Hox |
Prevention of premature NC cell migration and possible participation in NCCs multipotency and maintenance of stemness phenotype | (Weiner 2018) | |
| Cardiac stem cells | miR-106a, miR-17 and miR-93 | Upregulated | Fog 2 gene | Differentiation of CSCs | Zhang et al. (2018) |
| miR-193a | Downregulated | C-kit | CSCs’ proliferation and migration | Sun et al. (2018) | |
| miR-210 | Upregulated | GR | Proliferation, maturation, and differentiation during cardiac fetal development | Meng et al. (2020) | |
| Mesenchymal stem cells | miR-187-5p | Upregulated | ICAM-1 | Osteogenic differentiation and bone regeneration | Sun et al. (2020) |
| miR-664a-5p | Upregulated | OCN, RUNX2, ALP, and HMGA2 | Osteogenic and osteoblastic differentiation | Zhang et al. (2020b) | |
| miR-483-3p | Upregulated | STAT1 | Osteogenic differentiation and bone formation | Xiao et al. (2019) | |
| miR-1301 | Upregulated | Bax, Bcl-2, ALP, RUNX2, OPN, and Satb2 | Adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation and proliferation | Kong et al. (2020) | |
| miR-218 | Upregulated | HPGD | Chondrogenic differentiation | Chen et al. (2019) | |
| Spermatogonial stem cells | miR-1908-3p | Upregulated | KLF2 | Promotion of proliferation and DNA synthesis of SSCs, and suppression of SSC apoptosis | Chen et al. (2020a) |
| miR-122-5p | Upregulated | CBL | Control of fate determinations of SSCs, promotion of proliferation and DNA synthesis of SSCs, and reduction of SSC early apoptosis | Zhou et al. (2020a) | |
| miR-31-5p | Upregulated | JAZF1 | Inhibition of proliferation and DNA synthesis of SSCs, and promotion of early and late SSC apoptosis | Fu et al. (2019) | |
| miR-30a-5p | Downregulated | Stra8, C-kit, GFRa1, PLZF, and ID4 | Promotion of differentiation of SSCs and suppression of self-renewal and proliferation of SSCs | Khanehzad et al. (2021) | |
| miR-30 | – | ID4 and C/kit | Regulation of self-renewal and differentiation of SSCs | Khanehzad et al. (2020) | |
| miR-322 | Upregulated | Rassf8 | Promotion of proliferation of SSCs and regulation of self-renewal and differentiation of SSCs | Wang et al. (2019) | |
| Cancer stem cells | miR-302a/d | Downregulated | E2F7 and AKT/-catenin/CCND1 signaling pathway | Associated with the cell cycle and functions of self-renewal | Ma et al. (2018) |
| miR-148a | Downregulated | SMAD2, AKT2, and KLF4 | Regulation of the TGF-β signaling pathway, inhibition of cell proliferation and EMT properties, and suppression of cytoprotective autophagy | Mohamed et al. (2019) | |
| miR‑486‑5p | Downregulated | Sirt1 | Maintenance of hepatic CSCs' self-renewal and tumorigenic capacity | Yan et al. (2019) | |
| miR-1 | Downregulated | RPPRC protein, MINOS1 and GPD2 | Regulation of mitochondrial morphology | Zhang et al. (2019a) | |
| miR-28-5p | Downregulated | IGF-1 | Regulation of programmed cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis | Xia et al. (2019) | |
| miR-101 | Downregulated | ANXA2 | Cell cycle acceleration and promotion of cell migration and invasion abilities | Ma et al. (2021) | |
| miR-140-5p | Downregulated | Wnt1 | Promotion of cell cycle, migration, and survival | Wu et al. (2019a) | |
| miR-135b | Upregulated | JADE-1 | Promotion of proliferation, migration, and invasion. Inhibition of cell apoptosis | Zhou et al. (2020b) | |
| miR-188 | Downregulated | MDK | Promotion of cancer stem cell malignancy and xenograft development | Yang et al. (2020) | |
| miR-302c | Downregulated | CARF | Promotion of proliferation, migration, and invasion. Inhibition of cell apoptosis | Zhang et al. (2021) | |
| Exosomal miRNAs in stem cells | |||||
| Mesenchymal stem cells | miR-125a-3p | – | – | Reduction of effector T-cell differentiation and proliferation | Asgarpour et al. (2020) and Muralikumar et al. (2021) |
| miR-145 | – | Nestin, glial fibrillary acidic protein, microtubule-associated protein-2, and oligodendrocyte transcription factor 2 mRNA | Implications in neurogenesis | Soni et al. (2021) | |
| miR-132, miR-145, and miR-125 | – | – | Induction of angiogenesis | Soni et al. (2021) | |
| Dental pulp stem cells | miR-27a-5p | – | TGFβ1/Smad signaling cascade | Induction of odontogenic differentiation | Jin et al. (2020) |
| Urine-derived stem cells | miR-16-5p | – | – | Attenuation of the progression of type I diabetic kidney issues | Zhang et al. (2017) |
| Adipose-derived stem cells | miR-215-5p | Upregulated | – | Beneficial effect on diabetic nephropathy prevention | Zhang et al. (2017) |