The Overexpression of miR-377 Aggravates Sepsis-Induced Myocardial Hypertrophy by Binding to Rcan2 and Mediating CaN Activity

Abstract

Sepsis remains a complicated and incompletely understood syndrome, and myocardial dysfunction is one of the main complications contributing to poor clinical outcomes. Accumulating evidence has revealed the critical involvement of the deregulated expression of specific microRNAs (miRNAs) in cardiac pathologies caused by sepsis. Intriguingly, miR-377 has been correlated with cardiomyocyte apoptosis, whereas its effect on myocardial hypertrophy remains to be illustrated. Thus, the current study sets out to explore the impact and underlying mechanism of miR-377 on myocardial hypertrophy induced by sepsis. The expression pattern of miR-377 was detected in myocardial tissues of septic mice induced by cecal ligation-perforation (CLP). We found that miR-377 was highly expressed in myocardial tissues of CLP-induced septic mice with cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Besides, miR-377 inhibition could relieve cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and reduce inflammation in septic mice. Further, mechanistic studies found that miR-377 could target Rcan2 and then regulate calcineurin (CaN) activity via Ca²⁺/CaN signaling pathway. Collectively, our findings illuminate that miR-377 enhances myocardial hypertrophy caused by sepsis, by targeting Rcan2 and further regulating the Ca²⁺/CaN signaling pathway. This work highlights downregulation of miR-377 as a novel target for the management of sepsis-induced myocardial hypertrophy.