MECHANISM OF BERBERINE ON INHIBITING MYOCARDIAL HYPERTROPHY

Zi-Tai Wei1*, Le Chen2

1Quzhou College of Technology, Quzhou 324000 Zhejiang, China - 2Hangzhou Fu Sheng Tong Chinese medicine clinic

 Introduction: In primary cultures of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes, we studied the effect of berberine (BBR) on phenylephrine (PE)-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and the mechanisms of its regulation of miRNA-199a-5p.

Materials and methods: Cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were divided into : Control group (no treatment), PE group (with 10 μl/ml of 10 μM PE stock), and PE + BBR group (with 10 μl/ml of 10 μM PE and 10 μg/ml BBR). The cardiomyocyte surface area was measured. The incorporation rate of 3(H)-leucine was used to measure cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. The expression of miRNA- 199a-5p in cardiomyocytes was measured. The candidate target genes of miRNA-199a-5p were analyzed and the expression level of Hsp70 was detected.

Results: BBR inhibited PE-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and significantly increased the rate of incorporation of 3(H)-leu- cine. miRNA-199a-5p was significantly up-regulated in PE group; the expression of miRNA-199a-5p was similar in the PE + BBR group and the control group, while the expression of Hsp70 protein was significantly increased in the PE + BBR group compared with the PE group.

Conclusion: miRNA-199a-5p may play an important role in cardiac hypertrophy, and BBR can inhibit PE-induced cardiomyo- cyte hypertrophy, which may be related to the inhibition of up-regulation of miRNA-199a-5p and increasing the level of Hsp70.