Differential expression of myocardial microRNAs is implicated in dexmedetomidine induced cardioprotection in rats

Using the highly sensitive miRNA array, we screened 83 microRNAs abundant in the myocardium and we explored the functions of these miRNAs by Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes annotation. The enrichment results indicated that these miRNAs mainly participated in the phosphatidylinositol signaling system, PI3K-Akt, and MAPK. Furthermore, the TTC staining results showed that dexmedetomidine preconditioning attenuates myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury by desregulation of several miRNAs and their potential target genes, which will give new insights into disclosing the mechanism of dexmedetomidine-induced cardioprotection. In this study, three samples from each group (control, C; ischemia-reperfusion, IR; dexmedetomidine preconditioning, DP) were used to acquire the miRNA expression profiling and the function of the abudant miRNAs in the myocrdium were analyzed by bioinformatic methods. Left ventricle infarct sizes were determine by the TTC staining. Finally, dysregulated miRNAs and their potential target genes were predicted to uncover mechanisms of dexmedetomidine-induced cardioprotection.