Gene expression profiling analysis to investigate the role of remote ischemic postconditioning in ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats

BACKGROUND: Blood flow restoration is a definitive therapy for salvaging the myocardium following ischemic injury. Nevertheless, the sudden restoration of blood flow to the ischemic myocardium can induce ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). RESULTS: Herein, we investigated the cardioprotective effect of remote ischemic postconditioning (RPostC) through our in vivo rat model of myocardial IRI. The study included three groups: the control group, the IRI group, and the IRI + RPostC group. Ischemia-reperfusion treatment led to an increase in the myocardial infarction area, which was inhibited by RPostC. In contrast to that in the control group, the myocardial apoptosis level was enhanced in the IRI group, whereas RPostC treatment decreased IRI-induced cellular apoptosis. Affymetrix Rat Gene 2.0 ST chip data identified a total of 265 upregulated genes and 267 downregulated genes between the IRI and IRI + RPostC groups. A group of differentially expressed noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), such as MTA_TC0600002772.mm, MTA_TC1300002394.mm, U7 small nuclear RNA (Rnu7) and RGD7543256_1, were identified. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis indicated that the positive regulation of some molecular functions, such as GTPase activity, GTP binding, cyclic-nucleotide phosphodiesterase activity and cytokine activity, may contribute to the cardioprotective role of RPostC. Moreover, pathway enrichment analysis using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) suggested the potential implication of the TNF signaling pathway and Toll-like receptor signaling pathway. Global signal transduction network analysis, co-expression network analysis and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis further identified several core genes, including Pdgfra, Stat1, Lifr and Stfa3. CONCLUSION: Remote ischemic postconditioning treatment can decrease IRI-mediated myocardial apoptosis by regulating multiple processes and pathways, such as GTPase activity, cytokine activity, and the TNF and Toll-like receptor signaling pathways. The potential role of the above ncRNAs and core genes in IRI-induced cardiac damage merits further study as well. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-019-5743-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.