Meares, Gordon P.Rajbhandari, RajaniGerigk, MagdaTien, Chih-LiangChang, ChenbeiFehling, Samuel C.Rowse, AmberMulhern, Kayln C.Nair, SindhuGray, G. KennethBerbari, Nicolas F.Bredel, MarkusBenveniste, Etty N.Nozell, Susan E.2019-08-092019-08-092018-05Meares, G. P., Rajbhandari, R., Gerigk, M., Tien, C. L., Chang, C., Fehling, S. C., … Nozell, S. E. (2018). MicroRNA-31 is required for astrocyte specification. Glia, 66(5), 987–998. doi:10.1002/glia.23296https://hdl.handle.net/1805/20305Previously, we determined microRNA-31 (miR-31) is a noncoding tumor suppressive gene frequently deleted in glioblastoma (GBM); miR-31 suppresses tumor growth, in part, by limiting the activity of NF-κB. Herein, we expand our previous studies by characterizing the role of miR-31 during neural precursor cell (NPC) to astrocyte differentiation. We demonstrate that miR-31 expression and activity is suppressed in NPCs by stem cell factors such as Lin28, c-Myc, SOX2 and Oct4. However, during astrocytogenesis, miR-31 is induced by STAT3 and SMAD1/5/8, which mediate astrocyte differentiation. We determined miR-31 is required for terminal astrocyte differentiation, and that the loss of miR-31 impairs this process and/or prevents astrocyte maturation. We demonstrate that miR-31 promotes astrocyte development, in part, by reducing the levels of Lin28, a stem cell factor implicated in NPC renewal. These data suggest that miR-31 deletions may disrupt astrocyte development and/or homeostasis.en-USPublisher PolicyAstrocytesDifferentiationmicroRNA-31Neural precursor cellArticle