Phosphorylation of nucleolin is indispensable to upregulate miR‐21 and inhibit apoptosis in cardiomyocytes

Abstract Nucleolin is a multifunctional phosphoprotein and is involved in protecting from myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. The function of nucleolin is regulated by posttranslational modifications, including phosphorylation and glycosylation. To study whether phosphorylation of nucleolin (P‐nucleolin) was involved in the protection from myocardial I/R injury. We investigated the expression pattern of P‐nucleolin (Thr‐76 and 84) in hearts subjected to I/R injury, or rat cardiac myoblast cells (H9C2) subjected to hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ). The results showed that the expression of P‐nucleolin and the ratio of P‐nucleolin/nucleolin were significantly increased both in vivo and in vitro. Mutant nucleolin was obtained by site directed mutagenesis in vitro: threonine at 76 and 84 was replaced by alanine, and we found that the protective effect of nucleolin on apoptosis induced by oxidative stress was dependent on its phosphorylation at 76 and 84 in H9C2 cells. Furthermore, the cardio‐protective roles of P‐nucleolin (Thr‐76 and 84) in H9C2 cardiomyocytes, were attributable to the upregulation of microRNA (miR)‐21. Further analysis found that P‐nucleolin (Thr‐76 and 84) could bind to miR‐21, and P‐nucleolin colocalized with argonaute 2 (Ago2) in cytoplasm and could interact with Ago2 in a RNA‐independent manner under cell oxidative stress. The current study revealed that P‐nucleolin (Thr‐76 and 84) increased in I/R injury myocardium, P‐nucleolin was indispensable to upregulate miR‐21 and inhibited apoptosis induced by H 2 O 2 in H9C2 cardiomyocytes. These findings provided new insight into the molecular mechanisms of nucleolin in myocardial I/R injury and oxidative stress cells.