MicroRNA-145-5p inhibits hypoxia/reoxygenation-induced apoptosis in H9c2 cardiomyocytes by targeting ROCK1

Chao Cheng; Dong-Ling Xu; Xiao-Bo Liu; Shao-Jie Bi; Juan Zhang

doi:10.3892/etm.2021.10228

MicroRNA-145-5p inhibits hypoxia/reoxygenation-induced apoptosis in H9c2 cardiomyocytes by targeting ROCK1

Exp Ther Med. 2021 Aug;22(2):796. doi: 10.3892/etm.2021.10228. Epub 2021 May 25.

Authors

Chao Cheng¹, Dong-Ling Xu¹, Xiao-Bo Liu², Shao-Jie Bi¹, Juan Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cardiology, The Second Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250033, P.R. China.
² Shandong Blood Center, Jinan, Shandong 250012, P.R. China.

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that microRNAs (miRs) play critical roles in the pathological and physiological processes associated with myocardial ischemia reperfusion (I/R). miR-145 has been extensively studied in the cardiovascular system; however, the role of miR-145 in myocardial I/R remains unclear. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the role and mechanism of miR-145-5p in myocardial I/R by establishing a hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) model using H9c2 cardiomyocytes. The expression of miR-145-5p was regulated by transfection and the potential target of miR-145-5p was identified. In addition, apoptosis of the cardiomyocytes was evaluated using flow cytometry and the detection of cleaved caspase-3 by western blotting. The results revealed that miR-145-5p expression was decreased while cell apoptosis and Rho-associated coiled-coil-containing kinase 1 (ROCK1) expression were increased in H/R-stimulated H9c2 cardiomyocytes. The upregulation of miR-145-5p reduced apoptosis and the expression of ROCK1 in H/R-stimulated H9c2 cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, the overexpression of ROCK1 significantly attenuated the miR-145-5p-induced reduction of apoptosis following H/R. In conclusion, the present study indicates that the overexpression of miR-145-5p inhibits H/R-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis by targeting ROCK1.

Keywords: H9c2; ROCK1; cardiomyocyte apoptosis; hypoxia/reoxygenation; microRNA-145-5p.

Grants and funding

Funding: The authors gratefully acknowledge research support provided by the Youth Foundation of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 81600284) and Shandong Key Research and Development Project (grant no. 2016GSF201196).