RNA sequencing of left ventricle tissue two days after rHCI hydrogel injection in a mouse myocardial infarction model

Purpose: rHCI hydrogel injection improves cardiac function within 2 days of treatment in a mouse model of myocardial infarction. The goal of this study was to determine the differences in gene expression with rHCI hydrogel injection post-myocardial infarction. Methods: Total RNA was isolated from left ventricle tissue of samples and mRNA stranded libraries were prepared and sequenced in Illumina NovaSeq 6000 with a depth of 50 million reads per sample. Differential expression analysis of aligned reads was done to compared gene expression between PBS vs. rHCI, PBS vs. sham, and rHCI vs. sham comparisons. Results: Differentially expressed genes between sham and PBS as well as rHCI and PBS showed known gene signatures of myocardial infarction. Seven differentially expressed genes were detected with rHCI hydrogel injection compared to PBS. Conclusions: The target gene ERDR1 that is downregulated with rHCI injection led to discovery of changes in cardiomyocyte apoptosis and reduction of oxidative stress adducts with rHCI injection post-myocardial infarction. Left ventricle sample mRNA sequencing for mice with myocardial infarction injected with PBS (control) or rHCI hydrogel. An age-matched sham group was also included. There were 5 biological replicates per group for a total of 15 samples.