MicroRNAs have been implicated in some biological and pathological processes, including the myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Recent findings demonstrated that miR-93 might provide a potential cardioprotective effect on ischemic heart disease. This study was to investigate the role of miR-93 in I/R-induced cardiomyocyte injury and the potential mechanism. In this study, we found that hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) dramatically increased LDH release, MDA contents, ROS generation, and endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS)-mediated cardiomyocyte apoptosis, which were attenuated by co-transfection with miR-93 mimic. Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) was identified as the target gene of miR-93. Furthermore, miR-93 mimic significantly increased p-Akt levels under H/R, which was partially released by LY294002. In addtion, Ad-miR-93 also attenuated myocardial I/R injury in vivo, manifested by reduced LDH and CK levels, infarct area and cell apoptosis. Taken together, our findings indicates that miR-93 could protect against I/R-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis by inhibiting PI3K/AKT/PTEN signaling.
