Abstract

Aquaporins are membrane proteins that transport water and other small molecules (like e.g. glycerol, H2O2) across biological membranes. In recent years research findings link changes in the expression level of aquaporins to the development of civilization diseases. However, the mechanism inducing the change in aquaporin expression is not yet fully understood. Short non-coding RNA molecules called miRNAs are also common factors that regulate protein expression levels. In the present study, we tested whether there is a correlation between the expression levels of selected miRNAs which levels depend on hormones and the expression levels of aquaporins. The study was conducted on the HCT116 cell line. Cells were treated for 24 hours with water (control) or various concentrations of estradiol, progesterone or insulin. After this time, RNA was isolated from the cells and expression levels of aquaporins 1, 3 and 8 and miRNA-29a were determined by RT-qPCR. The ΔΔCt method was used to determine the relative expression levels of the genes studied, the calculation referring to the expression level of the reference gene GAPDH for AQP and SNORD44 for miRNA. The results showed that the expression levels of the studied aquaporins and miRNAs depend on the concentration of hormones. It was also shown that there is a correlation between the change in the expression level of miRNA-29a and the expression levels of AQP1, AQP3, and AQP8. The nature of the changes (increase/decrease) in the level of expression of aquaporins depends on the type of hormones. Thus, the results indicate that the change in the expression level of aquaporins in civilization diseases can be induced directly by hormones and/or indirectly by miRNAs whose expression is regulated by hormones. Keywords: aquaporins, miRNA, hormones