lncRNA LINC01535 upregulates BMP2 expression levels to promote osteogenic differentiation via sponging miR‑3619‑5p.

Osteoporosis is a debilitating skeletal disease that causes bones to collapse and is accompanied by a high risk of bone fracture. It was previously demonstrated that the osteogenic differentiation of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) serves an important role in the process of human bone formation. Accumulating research has indicated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) participate in hBMSC osteogenic differentiation. For example, LINC01535 was reported to serve as a carcinogenic factor in cervical cancer; however, its latent function and molecular mechanism in the osteogenesis of hBMSCs remain to be investigated. The present study showed that the expression levels of LINC01535 were upregulated upon increasing osteogenic differentiation time. In addition, the inhibition of LINC01535 inhibited hBMSC proliferation and osteogenic differentiation and promoted cell apoptosis. Using bioinformatics analysis, LINC01535 was discovered to have complementary binding sites for microRNA (miR)-3619-5p, and further experiments demonstrated that LINC01535 functioned as a sponge of miR-3619-5p. Additionally, bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) was confirmed to be a target of miR-3619-5p. The results revealed that LINC01535 regulated the expression levels of BMP2 via sponging miR-3619-5p. In conclusion, the findings of the present study suggested that LINC01535 may accelerate the osteogenic process of hBMSCs via targeting the miR-3619-5p/BMP2 axis, which may offer an innovative therapeutic method for osteoporosis.