Modulation of TLR2 Protein Expression by miR-105 in Human Oral Keratinocytes*

Mammalian biological processes such as inflammation, involve regulation of hundreds of genes controlling onset and termination. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can translationally repress target mRNAs and regulate innate immune responses. Our model system comprised primary human keratinocytes, which exhibited robust differences in inflammatory cytokine produc-tion (interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-) following spe-cific Toll-like receptor 2 and 4 (TLR-2/TLR-4) agonist chal-lenge. We challenged these primary cells with Porphyromonas gingivalis (a Gram-negative bacterium that triggers TLR-2 and TLR-4) and performedmiRNA expression profiling.We identi-fied miRNA (miR)-105 as a modulator of TLR-2 protein trans-lation in human gingival keratinocytes. There was a strong inverse correlation between cells that had high cytokine responses following TLR-2 agonist challenge and miR-105 lev