MicroRNA-22 regulates inflammation and angiogenesis via targeting VE-cadherin

The vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin functions as an endothelial barrier protein controlling endothelial permeability and leukocyte transmigration. Developmental studies indicate that VE-cadherin also plays a vital role in angiogenesis. MicroRNA-22 plays important roles in cardiovascular diseases including cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. We identified that miR-22 interacts with VE-cadherin mRNA. Overexpression of miR-22 in endothelial cells increases the synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines. Injection of miR-22 results in increased myeloperoxidase activity in the mouse lungs. Moreover, miR-22 injection into the fluorescent-labeled transgenic zebrafish Tg(fli1:EGFP) embryos caused defective vascular development in the dorsal and intersegmental vessels, and vascular markers were significantly suppressed in these embryos. Our studies demonstrate that the conserved targeting of VE-cadherin by miR-22 regulates endothelial inflammation, tissue injury, and angiogenesis.