miRNA expression analysis in the human heart: Undifferentiated progenitors vs. bioptic tissues—Implications for proliferation and ageing

Abstract

In developed countries, cardiovascular diseases are currently the first cause of death. Cardiospheres (CSs) and cardiosphere‐derived cells (CDCs) have been found to have the ability to regenerate the myocardium after myocardial infarction (MI). In recent years, much effort has been made to gain insight into the human heart repair mechanisms, in which miRNAs have been shown to play an important role. In this regard, to elucidate the involvement of miRNAs, we evaluated the miRNA expression profile across human heart biopsy, CSs and CDCs using microarray and next‐generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. We identified several miRNAs more represented in the progenitors, where some of them can be responsible for the proliferation or the maintenance of an undifferentiated state, while others have been found to be downregulated in the undifferentiated progenitors compared with the biopsies. Moreover, we also found a correlation between downregulated miRNAs in CSs/CDCs and patient age (eg miR‐490) and an inverse correlation among miRNAs upregulated in CSs/CDCs (eg miR‐31).

Different priming strategies improve distinct therapeutic capabilities of mesenchymal stromal/stem cells: Potential implications for their clinical use

“…Recently, it has been revealed that EXO-derived miRNAs play a critical role in mediating EXO effects[ 56 ]. MiRNAs are 19-22-nucleotide-long non-coding RNAs that regulate mRNA translation, and are involved in many cellular processes[ 56 , 57 ]. Therefore, even if some therapeutic functions of the MSCs are mediated by cell-to-cell contact, the secretion of paracrine factors can be considered the main mechanism by which MSCs elicit functional responses in target cells[ 3 , 40 , 58 , 59 ].…”

Role of Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells in Modulating Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury: Current State of the Art and Future Perspectives

“…For example, it has been shown that MSC-derived EVs promote angiogenesis, an effect that can be ascribed principally to the miRNA content in EVs [ 207 ]. MiRNAs have been involved at various levels in cardiac repair or cardiomyocyte proliferation/aging [ 208 , 209 ] by modulating pathways implicated in the inhibition of fibrosis after MI in repair processes. MSC-derived EVs can promote cardiac protection, given that this treatment shows a positive effect in rat models on the MI heart by reducing scar-size formation, and stimulating angiogenesis [ 72 ].…”