Analysis of microRNA expression profile in cardiac muscle tissues of diabetic mice

Objective To observe expression of microRNA (miRNA) in cardiac muscle tissues of advanced diabetic mice and to make an initial prediction of target gene regulated by difference miRNA. Methods Fifteen C57 mice were given single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ) to establish diabetic models (model group). Another 10 normal mice were as control group. At the end of 8 weeks after injection, left ventricular functions, including ejection fraction (EF), fractional shortening (FS), and left ventricular weight index (LVWI), were detected by using echocardiography. The mice were sacrificed for making cardiac muscle tissue samples. Then, cell morphology was observed by HE staining under optical microscope, and change of cell size was analyzed by quantitative software. Differential expressions of miRNA were performed with microarray analysis and further confirmed by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. The target gene regulated by difference miRNA was analyzed with bioinformatics. Results At the end of 8 weeks