LncRNA Fendrr inhibits hypoxia/reoxygenation-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis by downregulating p53 expression

Abstract Objective LncRNA Fendrr plays an important role in cardiac development, but its role in myocardial ischaemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury remains unclear. P53 has been shown to be an important regulator of apoptosis and is involved in myocardial I/R-induced apoptosis. This study aims at investigating whether Fendrr affects hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R)-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis through p53. Methods The left anterior descending coronary artery of the rat was ligated for 30 min and then reperfusion for 120 min by releasing the suture. Neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVM) and rat cardiac cell line H9c2 were cultured for 6 h in hypoxia (95% N2 and 5% CO2), followed by reoxygenation (95% air and 5% CO2) for 6 h. Transfection were performed in cells. Apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry. Moreover, RNA pull-down, RNA immunoprecipitation, ubiquitination assay, GST pull-down assay and co-immunoprecipitation were used to detect the regulation of Fendrr on p53 protein. Key findings Fendrr was decreased in I/R-induced myocardium and H/R-induced cardiomyocyte, and overexpression of Fendrr inhibited H/R-induced NRVM or H9c2 cells apoptosis. Further research found that the 1381–2100 nt of Fendrr bound to p53 protein and Fendrr promoted t direct binding of p53 to Cop1. The inhibition of Fendrr reduced the binding of E3 ubiquitin–protein ligase constitutive photomorphogenesis protein 1 (COP1) to p53 and reduced the ubiquitination of p53. Furthermore, the inhibition of Fendrr on H/R-induced NRVM or H9c2 cells apoptosis could be reversed by overexpression of p53. Conclusions Fendrr can inhibit H/R-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis, which is partly through promoting the ubiquitination and degradation of p53 by increasing the binding of Cop1 and p53.