MiR-21 Protected Cardiomyocytes against Doxorubicin-Induced Apoptosis by Targeting BTG2

Doxorubicin (DOX) is an anthracycline drug with a wide spectrum of antineoplastic activities. However, it causes cardiac cytotoxicity, and this limits its clinical applications. MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) plays a vital role in regulating cell proliferation and apoptosis. While miR-21 is preferentially expressed in adult cardiomyocytes and involved in cardiac development and heart disease, little is known regarding its biological functions in responding to DOX-induced cardiac cytotoxicity. In this study, the effects of DOX on mouse cardiac function and the expression of miR-21 were examined in both mouse heart tissues and rat H9C2 cardiomyocytes. The results showed that the cardiac functions were more aggravated in chronic DOX injury mice compared with acute DOX-injury mice; DOX treatment significantly increased miR-21 expression in both mouse heart tissue and H9C2 cells. Over-expression of miR-21 attenuated DOX-induced apoptosis in cardiamyocytes whereas knocking down its expression increased DOX-induced apoptosis. These gain- and loss- of function experiments showed that B cell translocation gene 2 (BTG2) was a target of miR-21. The expression of BTG2 was significantly decreased both in myocardium and H9C2 cells treated with DOX. The present study has revealed that miR-21 protects mouse myocardium and H9C2 cells against DOX-induced cardiotoxicity probably by targeting BTG2.