MicroRNA-122 regulates caspase-8 and promotes the apoptosis of mouse cardiomyocytes
Authors: Z W Zhang
H Li
S S Chen
J Ma
Y Li
Z Y Cui
Journal: Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research (2017)
Discipline: CLINICAL MEDICINE
Keywords: Cardiomyocyte apoptosis; MicroRNA (miR)-122; Gene expression; Regulation; Caspase-8
Affiliations: Department of Cardiology, Jining No.1 People's Hospital, Jining, Shandong Province, China.

Abstract:  Cardiomyocyte apoptosis plays key roles in the pathogenesis of heart diseases such as myocardial infarction. MicroRNAs are important regulators of gene expression, which are also involved in the regulation of cardiomyocyte apoptosis. However, cardiomyocyte apoptosis regulated by microRNA (miR)-122 is largely unexplored. The aim of this study focused on the role of miR-122 in cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Cardiomyocytes were isolated from neonatal mice and primarily cultured. MiR-122 mimic and inhibitor were transfected to cardiomyocytes and verified by qRT-PCR. Cell viability and apoptosis post-transfection were assessed by MTT assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Changes in expression of caspase-8 were quantified by qRT-PCR and western blot. Results showed that miR-122 mimic and inhibitor successfully induced changes in miR-122 levels in cultured cardiomyocytes (P&lt;0.01). MiR-122 overexpression suppressed viability and promoted apoptosis of cardiomyocytes (P&lt;0.05), and miR-122 knockdown promoted cell viability and inhibited apoptosis (P&lt;0.05). The mRNA and protein levels of caspase-8 were elevated by miR-122 overexpression (P&lt;0.01) and reduced by miR-122 knockdown (P&lt;0.001). These results suggest an inductive role of miR-122 in cardiomyocyte apoptosis, which may be related to its regulation on caspase-8. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 If I may quote from posts by Dr Elisabeth Bik: This paper belongs to a set of over 400 papers (as per May 2020) that share very similar Western blots with tadpole-like shaped bands, the same background pattern, and striking similarities in title structures, paper layout, bar graph design, and - in a subset - flow cytometry panels. Despite these similarities, these papers are authored by researchers from different departments and institutes, with almost no overlap in authors. ![file] ![file] The list of these papers is available here: https: docs.google.com spreadsheets d 1KXqTAyl4j-jVorFPMD2XRpr76LcIKJ0CVyIvRj0exYQ edit?usp=sharing A more detailed description of this set of papers, suspected to all be generated by a common source, a paper mill , can be found here: https: forbetterscience.com 2020 01 24 the-full-service-paper-mill-and-its-chinese-customers (January 2020) https: scienceintegritydigest.com 2020 02 21 the-tadpole-paper-mill (February 2020) The same paper mill has been described in these papers: Jana Christopher - Systematic fabrication of scientific images revealed - FEBS Letters (2018) - https: febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com doi full 10.1002 1873-3468.13201 Jennifer A Byrne and Jana Christopher - Digital magic, or the dark arts of the 21st centuryu2014how can journals and peer reviewers detect manuscripts and publications from paper mills? - FEBS Letters (2020) - https: febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com doi full 10.1002 1873-3468.13747 ,