MicroRNA-187 Reduces Acute Ischemic Renal Podocyte Injury via Targeting Acetylcholinesterase

Podocyte injury was reported to be involved in the major pathogenesis of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R)-induced ischemic acute renal failure. Our purpose was to study the mechanism of miR-187 improving I/R-induced podocytes injury.

The miR-187 mimics and inhibitor were transfected into the immortalized mouse podocyte (MPC-5) cells, and then transfected cells were subjected to hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R, 3/3 h) to establish an H/R cell model. To investigate the effects of miR-187 on H/R-induced cell injury, cell viability and apoptosis were measured by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and flow cytometry. Dual-luciferase report system was used to verify whether miR-187 could directly target acetylcholinesterase (ACHE). The animal ischemia/reperfusion model was established and injected with miR-187 agomir. Kidney tissue sections were subjected to histological examination by hematoxylin and eosin staining to assess the renal injury. Real-time quantitative PCR and western blot were performed to determine gene expressions.

The transfection of miR-187 mimics contributed to MPC-cells resistance to H/R-induced cell injury, which was reflected by enhanced cell viability and reduced apoptosis (from 20.05% to 9.43%) in H/R + negative control group. ACHE was confirmed as a target of miR-187, and ACHE siRNA had a similar efficiency to miR-187 mimic. The injection of miR-187 agomir not only effectively protected the kidney from I/R-induced injury, but also reduced the concentrations of serum creatinine. Moreover, nephrin was noticeably increased and desmin was decreased under the effects of agomir.

Our findings indicated that miR-187 improved I/R-induced ischemic acute renal failure through protecting glomerular filtration barrier by blocking the expression of ACHE.