Although the toxicology of poly(ethylenimine) (PEI) in gene expression levels has been previously investigated, little is known about the effects of PEI on the expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. In this study, we explored miRNA expression profiles related to cell death mechanisms in mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) cells treated with PEI by applying microarray analysis. Based on the analysis of the mTOR signaling pathway, three upregulated miRNAs (mmu-miR-3090-5p, mmu-miR-346-3p, and mmu-miR-494-3p) were verified in MEF cells treated with PEI at 24 h using real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. We further demonstrated that these three upregulated miRNAs resulted in the decrease of gene and protein expressions of the target gene growth factor Igf1 in MEF cells treated with PEI or transfected with three upregulated miRNA mimics. However, these three upregulated miRNAs are not all cell-specific. Finally, we demonstrated that the mTOR signaling pathway is inhibited by autophagy induction and that the cell viability decreases in MEF cells treated with PEI or transfected with these three miRNA mimics. Collectively, our data suggested that PEI may affect the regulation of miRNAs in target cells.
