page_title: MIAT (gene)
section_title: Myocardial Infarction
hierarchical_section_title: MIAT (gene) / Function in Pathology / Myocardial Infarction
caption_attribution_description: English: Model of the molecular mechanism of Gomafu. Gomafu forms RNA–protein complexes containing the splicing factors SF1 and Celf3. These splicing factors assemble on transcription sites of specific RNAs to form CS bodies. Gomafu may sequester Celf3 and SF1 and control their dynamics in the nucleus. Celf3 may also affect the expression of other genes such as structural RNA in the CS bodies through the association with their transcripts.
context_page_description: MIAT, also known as RNCR2 or Gomafu, is a long non-coding RNA. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in MIAT are associated with a risk of myocardial infarction. It is expressed in neurons, and located in the nucleus. It plays a role in the regulation of retinal cell fate specification. Crea and collaborators have shown that MIAT is highly up-regulated in aggressive prostate cancer samples, raising the possibility that this gene plays a role in cancer progression.
context_section_description: Myocardial infarction is more commonly known as a heart attack. It is the irreversible death of the heart muscle due to prolonged obstruction of blood supply to the organ. Case-controlled large scale studies utilizing Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms(SNPs) throughout the genome demonstrated that altered expression at 6 SNPs in the MIAT gene might confer genetic susceptibility to myocardial infarctions. MIAT has been demonstrated to encode a nonfunctional RNA. Although the exact function of MIAT is still unclear, knowledge of some of the genetic factors that contribute to the pathogenesis of myocardial infarction can lend itself to better diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. Despite all that has been discovered about MIAT,  a causal link between MIAT and myocardial infarctions has not yet been demonstrated. 
  Additionally, one study demonstrated that expression levels of MIAT are shown to change in peripheral blood cells of patients with acute myocardial infarction. In particular, researchers studied the association between levels of lncRNAs and inflammation markers in patients who have suffered a myocardial infarction. MIAT levels were found to be positively associated with lymphocytes and negatively associated with neutrophils and platelets. In another portion of this study, researchers looked at the association between cardiovascular risk factors and levels of lncRNAs. Smoking was a cardiovascular risk factor that was found to be positively associated with MIAT. It is important to realize that even though several researchers have reported that levels of lncRNAs are regulated in the cardiac tissue following a heart attack, it is not known for sure whether it is the myocardial infarction that affects the levels of lncRNAs in peripheral blood cells. MIAT has various genotypes of SNPs and it is possible that only one of them relates to heart disease.
caption: Model of the molecular mechanism of Gomafu
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