Aberrant expression of long noncoding RNAs in the serum and myocardium of spontaneous hypertensive rats

Circulating long noncoding RNAs as biomarkers of diseases have attracted increasing attention recently. However, circulating lncRNAs in hypertension is still unexplored niche. The levels of lncRNAs GAS5, NR024118, MRAK134679, AX765700 and MRNR026574 were measured in the serum and myocardium of hypertensive rats and normal controls with real time PCR. The levels of GAS5 were significantly higher both in the myocardium (P=0.0067) and serum (P<0.0001) of hypertensive rats compared with controls. The levels of NR024118 were remarkably higher in the myocardium of hypertensive rats (P=0.0202) while the levels of serum NR024118 were not statistically significant in two groups (P=0.6926). The levels of serum AX765700 (P=0.0644) and cardiac AX765700 (P=0.1938) were not statistically significant in hypertensive rats and controls. The levels of MRAK134679 were not different in the myocardium of two groups (P=0.1692) and were too low in the serum to be detected. The levels of MRNR026574 were significantly higher in the myocardium of hypertensive rats compared with controls (P<0.0001) and were too low in the serum to be detected. In conclusions, the levels of GAS5, NR024118 and MRNR026574 were increased in the myocardium of hypertensive rats, suggesting that they participate in the pathogenesis of hypertensive cardiac remodeling. Although, the levels of GAS5 in the serum and heart tissue were both significantly increased in SH rats, the potential biomarker capacity of GAS5 for HT needs to be further explored on larger human cohorts.