LncRNAMORT is upregulated in myocardial infarction and promotes the apoptosis of cardiomyocyte by downregulating miR-93

Myocardial infarction (MI) affects the expression of a large number of lncRNAs, while the functions of those dysregulated lncRNAs are mostly unclear.

Expression of MORT and miR-93 in hearth tissues and plasma of both MI mice and Sham mice and both MI patients and healthy controls was detected by RT-qPCR. Correlations of expression levels of MORT and miR-93 between hear tissues and plasma of MI mice were explored by performing linear regression.

In the present study we found that MORT expression levels were higher, while expression levels of miR-93 were lower in both plasma and heart tissues of mice MI mice models compared with Sham mice. Plasma levels of MORT and miR-93 were largely consistent with expression levels of MORT and miR-93 in heart tissue of MI mice. MORT expression levels were also higher, while levels of miR-93 were also lower in plasma of MI patients compared with healthy controls. MORT and miR-93 were inversely correlated in MI patients but not in healthy controls. MORT overexpression resulted in inhibited miR-93 expression in cardiomyocytes (AC16 cell line), while miR-93 overexpression did not significantly affect MORT expression. MORT overexpression promoted cardiomyocyte apoptosis, while miR-93 overexpression played and opposite role and attenuated the effects of MORT overexpression.

Therefore, lncRNA MORT is upregulated in myocardial infarction and promotes the apoptosis of cardiomyocyte by downregulating miR-93.