Expression of ACE2 mRNA in rat myocardium after acute myocardial infarction and its significance

    CHEN Gao£¬HUANG Congª²Xin, ZHAO Qingª²Yan£¬YAO Yan

    Department of Cardiology, People¬ðs Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430060, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To investigate the changes of the mRNA expression of ACE2 after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in SD female rat. METHODS: Thirtyª²six SD female rats were randomly separated into 3 groups (n=12 in each one) according to the infarction duration (1, 3, 28 d), which were randomly and evenly again separated into 2 subgroups: operated group and sham operated group. The levels of mRNA expression of ACE2 in the noninfarct and infract area of left ventricle 1, 3, 28 d after AMI were detected by RTª²PCR and analyzed semiª²quantitatively by imageª²analysis system. RESULTS: Compared with sham operated group, the mRNA expression of ACE2 had no significant difference in the infract and noninfarct areas of operated group at day 1 after AMI (P>0.05). The mRNA expression of ACE2 increased in the infract area compared with the noninfarct area at day 3 after AMI (P<0.01). At day 28, increase of ACE2 mRNA expression were also seen in the noninfarct area of AMI rats compared with the myocardium of control rats (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: The gene expression of ACE2 at mRNA level was significantly increased in the myocardium after AMI. ......