Endogenous microRNAs induced by heat-shock reduce myocardial infarction following ischemia–reperfusion in mice

Edited by Aleksander Benjak

Received 9 September 2008; received in revised form 20 October 2008; accepted 11 November 2008. published online 26 November 2008.

Abstract

We investigated the role of microRNAs (miRNA) in protection against ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in heart. Mice subjected to cytoprotective heat-shock (HS) showed a significant increase of miRNA-1, miRNA-21 and miRNA-24 in the heart. miRNAs isolated from HS mice and injected into non-HS mice significantly reduced infarct size after I/R injury, which was associated with the inhibition of pro-apoptotic genes and increase in anti-apoptotic genes. Chemically synthesized miRNA-21 also reduced infarct size, whereas a miRNA-21 inhibitor abolished this effect. Overall, these studies for the first time provide evidence for the potential role of endogenously synthesized miRNA’s in cardioprotection following I/R injury.

Keywords: Microrna, Heat-shock, Myocardial infarction, Apoptosis

Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, 1101 E. Marshall St. Sanger Hall, Box 980281, Richmond, VA 23298-0281, USA

Corresponding author. Fax: +1 804 828 870.

PII: S0014-5793(08)00922-8

doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2008.11.014

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