MicroRNAs as predictive biomarkers for myocardial injury in aged mice following myocardial infarction

The occurrence of myocardial infarction (MI) increases appreciably with age. In the Framingham Heart Study, the incidence of MI more than doubles for men and increases more than five-fold in women (ages 55-64 years compared to 85-94 years). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) quantitatively regulate their target's expression post-transcriptionally by either silencing action through binding at the 3UTR domains or degrading the messages at their coding regions. In either case, these regulations affect the cardiac transcriptional output and cardiac function. Among the known cardiac associated miRNA, miRNA-1, miRNA-133a, and miRNA-34a have been shown to induce adverse structural remodeling to impair cardiac contractile function. In the present study, an in vivo model of MI in young (3 month) and old (22 month) mice is used to investigate the possible role whereby these three miRNAs exert negative effects on heart function following MI. Herein we demonstrate that in older mouse heart, all three microRNAs show increased levels of expression, while miRNA-1 shows a further increase in old mouse heart following MI, which corresponds to left ventricular (LV) wall thinning. These structural changes in cardiac tissue may causes downstream LV dilation and subsequent LV dysfunction. Results presented here suggest that significantly elevated levels of miRNA-1 in post-MI old heart could be predictive of cardiac injury in older mice as the high risk biomarker for MI in older individuals.