Research Paper|Volume 11, Issue 14|pp 5192—5205

Down-regulation of lncRNA MALAT1 alleviates vascular lesion and vascular remodeling of rats with hypertension

Yu-Zeng Xue¹, Zhi-Juan Li², Wei-Tao Liu¹, Jin-Jiao Shan¹, Lei Wang¹, Qian Su³

¹Cardiology Department, Liaocheng People’s Hospital, Liaocheng 252000, Shandong Province, PR.China
²Cardiovascular Department, The First Affiliated Hospital, and College of Clinical Medicine of Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471003, Henan Province, PR.China
³Cardiovascular Department, Minhang Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 201100, PR.China

Received: May 31, 2019Accepted: July 16, 2019Published: July 25, 2019

Copyright © 2019 Xue et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 3.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Objective: Recently, the effect of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in hypertension (HTN) has been identified. This study aims to explore the expression of lncRNA metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) in HTN and its role in vascular lesion and remodeling of HTN rats.

Results: LncRNA MALAT1 expression was up-regulated in HTN patients, and lncRNA MALAT1 could be an effective index of HTN diagnosis. Down-regulated MALAT1 and inhibited Notch-1 could reduce relative factor expression, including inflammation-related factors, endothelial function-related factors and oxidative stress-related factors, and inhibit apoptosis of aortic endothelial cells of HTN rats.

Methods: LncRNA MALAT1 expression in HTN patients and healthy controls was detected by reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Angiotensin II (Ang II)-induced HTN rat models were injected with MALAT1-siRNA, empty lentivirus vector, Notch pathway inhibitor (DAPT) and dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) via caudal vein. After three-week treatment, changes of blood pressure, inflammatory factor levels, endothelial function-related factors, oxidative stress indices and apoptosis of vascular endothelial cells were determined by a series of assays.

Conclusion: This study revealed that down-regulated lncRNA MALAT1 could alleviate the vascular lesion and remodeling of HTN rats, the mechanism may be related to the inhibited activation of Notch signaling pathway.