Rationale:
The EF-hand Ca2+ sensor S100A1 is essential for proper endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase (eNOS) activation. S100A1 levels are greatly reduced in endothelial cells (ECs) subjected to hypoxia, rendering them dysfunctional.
Objective:
To determine if the 3’UTR mediates the rapid hypoxia-induced downregulation of S100A1 in ECs.
Methods and Results:
ECs transfected with a S100A1 - 3’ untranslated region (UTR) luciferase reporter construct displayed significantly reduced gene expression when subjected to gas or chemical hypoxia. Bioinformatic analysis suggested that microRNA -138 (miR-138) could target the 3’UTR of S100A1. Hypoxia greatly increased miR-138 levels in ECs, but not in skeletal muscle C2C12 myotubes. Consistent with this finding, patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI) or mice subjected to femoral artery resection (FAR) displayed increased miR-138 levels. Transfection of a miR-138 mimic into ECs reduced S100A1 - 3 ‘UTR reporter gene expression, while transfection of an anti miR-138 (antagomir) prevented the hypoxia-induced downregulation of the reporter gene. The increased levels of miR-138 are dependent on Hif1-α activation as treatment with siRNA against Hif1-α prevented S100A1 reporter gene downregulation after hypoxia. Conversely, specific activation of Hif1-α by a selective prolyl-hydroxylase inhibitor (IOX2) reduced reporter gene expression. Finally, ECs transfected with miR-138 mimic displayed reduced tube formation when plated onto Matrigel matrix and expressed less NO when stimulated with VEGF. These effects were reversed by gene transfer of S100A1 using recombinant adenovirus.
Conclusions:
Our study shows that miR-138 is an essential mediator of EC dysfunction via its ability to target the 3’UTR of S100A1 in a hypoxia-induced manner. MiR-138 might thus be an attractive target for the treatment of pathologies that are linked to endothelial dysfunction.
Reduction of Plasmid Vector Backbone Length Enhances Reporter Gene Expression