Inhibition of miR-143-3p alleviates myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury via limiting mitochondria-mediated apoptosis.

MicroRNA (miR)-143-3p is a potential regulatory molecule in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury (MI/RI), wherein its expression and pathological effects remains controversial. Thus, a mouse MI/RI and cell hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) models were built for clarifying the miR-143-3p's role in MI/RI. Following myocardial ischemia for 30 min, mice underwent reperfusion for 3, 6, 12 and 24 h. It was found miR-143-3p increased in the ischemic heart tissue over time after reperfusion. Cardiomyocytes transfected with miR-143-3p were more susceptible to apoptosis. Mechanistically, miR-143-3p targeted B cell lymphoma 2 (bcl-2). And miR-143-3p inhibition reduced cardiomyocytes apoptosis upon H/R, whereas it was reversed by a specific bcl-2 inhibitor ABT-737. Of note, miR-143-3p inhibition upregulated bcl-2 with better mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm), reduced cytoplasmic cytochrome c (cyto-c) and caspase proteins, and minimized infarction area in mice upon I/R. Collectively, inhibition of miR-143-3p might alleviate MI/RI via targeting bcl-2 to limit mitochondria-mediated apoptosis. To our knowledge, this study further clarifies the miR-143-3p's pathological role in the early stages of MI/RI, and inhibiting miR-143-3p could be an effective treatment for ischemic myocardial disease.

The effect of levosimendan on right ventricular function in patients with heart dysfunction: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Levosimendan exerts positive inotropic and vasodilatory effects. Currently, its effects on right heart function remain uncertain. This systematic review and meta-analysis is intended to illustrate the impacts of levosimendan on systolic function of the right heart in patients with heart dysfunction. We systematically searched electronic databases (PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase and Web of Science) up to November 30, 2020, and filtered eligible studies that reported the impacts of levosimendan on right heart function. Of these, only studies whose patients suffered from heart dysfunction or pulmonary hypertension were included. Additionally, patients were divided into two groups (given levosimendan or not) in the initial research. Then, RevMan5.3 was used to conduct further analysis. A total of 8 studies comprising 390 patients were included. The results showed that after 24 h of levosimendan, patients' right ventricular fractional area change [3.17, 95% CI (2.03, 4.32), P < 0.00001], tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion [1.26, 95% CI (0.35, 2.16), P = 0.007] and tricuspid annular peak systolic velocity [0.86, 95% CI (0.41, 1.32), P = 0.0002] were significantly increased compared to the control group. And there is an increasing trend of cardiac output in levosimendan group [1.06, 95% CI (- 0.16, 2.29), P = 0.09 ] .Furthermore, patients' systolic pulmonary arterial pressure [- 5.57, 95% CI (- 7.60, - 3.54), P < 0.00001] and mean pulmonary arterial pressure [- 1.01, 95% CI (- 1.64, - 0.37), P = 0.002] were both significantly decreased, whereas changes in pulmonary vascular resistance [- 55.88, 95% CI (- 206.57, 94.82), P = 0.47] were not significant. Our study shows that in patients with heart dysfunction, levosimendan improves systolic function of the right heart and decreases the pressure of the pulmonary artery.