Introduction: Background and Aim: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are globally the number 1 cause of death. Despite the improvement in treatment strategies, heart disorders are strongly increasing. Therefore, identification of new regulatory factors involved in cardiac differentiation is very important. Long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs) are transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides with limited coding potential. LncRNAs are known to be important transcriptional regulators of gene expression during cardiogenesis. The implications of lncRNAs in pathological processes of the cardiovascular system, including cardiac arrhythmia, cardiac hypertrophy, and heart failure as well as differentiation processes have been documented.
The biological functions and molecular mechanisms of lncRNAs have been studied extensively and they have recently been identified as crucial players in the cardiovascular system.
LncRNAs could provide a new means for the manipulation of stem and progenitor cells fate. Therefore, their discovery and functional characterization during cardiac differentiation might provide a means of understanding the molecular mechanism underlying cardiogenesis.
In this study, differentially expression of a lncRNA HRAT17 has measured over 5-time points during cardiomyocytes differentiation.
Methods: Method: Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) were prepared from Royan Stem Cell Bank (RSCB) and differentiated into cardiomyocyte. Cells were treated with CHIR99021 for initiating differentiation for 24 hrs. After one day, cells were treated with IWP4 for 48 hrs. Successful differentiation of cardiomyocytes was confirmed through microscopy method and expression analysis of the molecular markers, 0, 2, 6, 12, and 31 days after starting differentiation. The expression pattern of LncRNA HRAT17 was also checked through RT-qPCR during the cardiac differentiation course.
Results: Results: Data showed that the expression of LncRNA HRAT17 during Cardiomyocyte differentiation was increased.
Conclusion: Conclusion: Significant expression increasing of LncRNA during Cardiomyocyte differentiation revealed that this LncRNA potentially has a critical role in the differentiation of cardiac progenitor cells.