Open AccessmiR-210 has an antiapoptotic effect in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells during hypoxia
Author(s) -
Deming Gou,
Ramaswamy Ramchandran,
Xiao Peng,
Lijun Yao,
Kang Kang,
Joy Sarkar,
Zhixin Wang,
Goufei Zhou,
J. Usha Raj
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
american journal of physiology. lung cellular and molecular physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.892
H-Index - 163
eISSN - 1522-1504
pISSN - 1040-0605
DOI - 10.1152/ajplung.00344.2011
Subject(s) - hypoxia (environmental) , apoptosis , microrna , transcription factor , cancer research , pulmonary artery , biology , cell , pathogenesis , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , medicine , immunology , gene , biochemistry , oxygen , organic chemistry
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) were recently reported to play an important role in the pathogenesis of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), but it is not clear which miRNAs are important or what pathways are involved in the process. Because hypoxia is an important stimulus for human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell (HPASMC) proliferation and PAH, we performed miRNA microarray assays in hypoxia-treated and control HPASMC. We found that miR-210 is the predominant miRNA induced by hypoxia in HPASMC. Induction of miR-210 was also observed in whole lungs of mice with chronic hypoxia-induced PAH. We found that transcriptional induction of miR-210 in HPASMC is hypoxia-inducible factor-1α dependent. Inhibition of miR-210 in HPASMC caused a significant decrease in cell number due to increased apoptosis. We found that miR-210 appears to mediate its antiapoptotic effects via the regulation of transcription factor E2F3, a direct target of miR-210. Our results have identified miR-210 as a hypoxia-inducible miRNA both in vitro and in vivo, which inhibits pulmonary vascular smooth muscle cell apoptosis in hypoxia by specifically repressing E2F3 expression.