MiR‐183‐5p protects rat hearts against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury through targeting VDAC1

MicroRNAs have been reported to be implicated in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of miR‐183‐5p on I/R injury. Overexpression of miR‐183‐5p by agomiR transfection alleviated cardiac dysfunction and significantly reduced the infarct size in rats with myocardial I/R. MiR‐183‐5p also alleviated myocardial apoptosis with reduced apoptotic cells and lower levels of apoptosis associated proteins. in vitro experiments were conducted on rat H9c2 cells treated with anoxia/reoxygenation (A/R). Annexin V/propidium iodide (PI) staining and flow cytometry reported that the ratio of apoptotic cells decreased by miR‐183‐5p transfection before A/R treatment. Moreover, according to binding sequence prediction and Dual luciferase reporter assay, we explored that voltage‐dependent anion channel 1 (VDAC1), which aggravates myocardial injury and apoptosis reported in our former research, was a target of miR‐183‐5p. In conclusion, miR‐183‐5p can efficiently attenuate I/R injury and miR‐183‐5p may exert its effect through repressing VDAC1 expression.