RESUMO
The purpose of this study was to identify specific microRNAs (miRNAs) during differentiation and maturation of interneurons and to predict their possible functions by analyzing the expression of miRNAs during in vitro differentiation of the rat interneuron precursor cell line GE6. In the experiment, the interneuron precursor cell line GE6 was cultured under three different conditions, i. e. the first was that had not added growth factors and the normal differentiation cultured for 4 days (Ge6_4d); the second was that cultured with bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2) for 4 days (Ge6_bmp2); and the third was that cultured with sonic hedgehog (SHH) for 4 days (Ge6_ shh). In addition, another group of undifferentiated GE6 (Ge6_u) was applied as a control. We found in this study that the expression levels of a large number of miRNAs changed significantly during GE6 differentiation. The expression levels of miR-710, miR-290-5p and miR-3473 increased in the GE6 cells with secreted factor BMP2. These miRNAs may play important regulatory roles during interneuron differentiation.