Functional Characterization of the Micro-Rna Deficient Adult Murine Heart

Surya C. Gnyawali¹, Sashwati Roy¹, Jaideep Banerjee¹, Savita Khanna¹, Chandan K. Sen¹

MiRNAs are capable of post-transcriptional gene regulation by binding to their target messenger RNAs (mRNAs), leading to mRNA degradation or suppression of translation. MiRNAs have recently been shown to play pivotal roles in cardiovascular biology. Dicer, a RNAse III endonuclease, plays a key role in processing of miRNA into their functional mature form. A number of recent reports point towards a central role of miRNA in cardiac development and function. We have developed cardiomyocyte-specific conditional dicer knockout mice. Dicer knockout of adult mice resulted in a overt phenotype featuring ventricular enlargement, myocyte hypertrophy, and heart failure. In the current study we sought to functionally characterize the dicer deficient adult murine heart.