Identification of puberty related miRNAs in the hypothalamus of female mice

Puberty is the crucial developmental stage of transition from childhood to adulthood, organized by complex hormonal signaling within the neuroendocrine system with the hypothalamus regulating functions through the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. Genetic predisposition and environmental factors influence the pubertal timing, while miRNAs appear as potential regulators by either repressing genes or activating them by inhibiting their repressors. We investigated miRNA’s involvement in puberty control, by comparing the total population of miRNAs in the hypothalamus of female mice before, during and after puberty, through RNA sequencing. Our results present up- or down-regulation of expression on several miRNAs from pre-pubertal to pubertal stage. Monitoring these levels post-pubertally revealed four expression patterns, in which pathway analysis displayed associations with developmental processes, cell cycle regulation, metabolic biosynthesis and epigenetic regulation. These findings improve our understanding of the molecular pathways underlying puberty and stress the significance of miRNAs in fine-tuning gene expression within the hypothalamus.