Abstract: Objective Overdose of acetaminophen (APAP) clinically could result in severe and fatal liver failure.The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular role of micro ribonucleic acid-152 (miR-152) in the pathogenesis of APAP-induced acute liver injury.Methods B6 mice were intraperitoneally injected with APAP to induce acute liver injury. In the experiment, mice were given miR-152 agomir, antagomir and corresponding negative controls 24 hours before APAP induction, respectively. Assays of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and histology were conducted to evaluate the degree of APAP-induced liver injury. The expression levels of miR-152 and inflammatory factors were measured using quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction.Results Compared with the control group, the expression level of miR-152 increased by 2 fold after induction of APAP treatment (P< 0.05). The overexpression of miR-152 in vivo alleviated acute liver injury caused by APAP overdose, showing lower levels of ALT (8295 ± 557.1 vs. 3995 ± 551.9, P< 0.05) and AST (8065 ± 1057 vs. 3623 ± 548.4, P< 0.05). However, silencing miR-152 had a detrimental effect during the injury process, which were with higher levels of ALT (6973 ± 649.6 vs. 11915 ± 555.5, P< 0.05) and AST (6130 ± 566.7 vs. 9415 ± 622.0, P< 0.05).Conclusion It was demonstrated that miR-152 alleviated APAP-induced acute liver injury, which suggesting potential therapeutic value of miR-152 mimics on treatment of this disorder clinically.

Key words: Acetaminophen, Micro ribonucleic acid-152, Acute liver injury