Circulating miRNAs reflect early myocardial injury and recovery after heart transplantation

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short, single-stranded and non-coding RNAs, freely circulating in human plasma and correlating with vary pathologies. In this study, we monitored early myocardial injury and recovery after heart transplantation by detecting levels of circulating muscle-specific miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-208a. 7 consecutive patients underwent heart transplantation in Fuwai hospital and 14 healthy controls were included in our study. Peripheral vein blood was drawn from patients on the day just after transplantation (day 0), the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 7th and 14th day after transplantation respectively. Serum from peripheral blood was obtained for cardiac troponin I (cTnI) measurement. Plasma was centrifuged from peripheral blood for measuring miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-208a by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The plasma concentration of miRNAs were calculated by absolute quantification method. The sensitivity and specificity of circulating miRNAs were revealed by receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. Correlations between miRNAs and cTnI / perioperative parameters were analyzed. Similar to cTnI, miR-133a, miR-133b and miR-208a all showed dynamic changes from high to low levels early after operation. The Sensitivity and specificity of miRNAs were: miR-133a (85.7%,100%), miR-208a (100%,100%), and miR-133b (90%,100%). Correlations between miRNAs and cTnI were statistically significant (p