Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of forkhead box protein O (FOXO) 4 on hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) injury and inflammation in cardiomyocytes. Methods H9c2 cells were cultured in vitro until the cells reached 30%‒50% confluence. According to the random number table method, the cells were randomly divided into six groups (n=3): a control (Con) group, a hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) group, an overexpression FOXO4+hypoxia/reoxygenation (OF+H/R) group, and an overexpression FOXO4 negative control+hypoxia/reoxygenation (OF‑NC+H/R) group, a siFOXO4+hypoxia/reoxygenation (siFOXO4+H/R) group and a siRNA negative control+hypoxia/reoxygenation (siRNA‑NC+H/R) group. The Con group were cultured without treatment. The H/R group was subjected to 6 h of hypoxia followed by reoxygenation for 6 h. The OF+H/R group, the OF‑NC+H/R group, the siFOXO4+H/R group and the siRNA‑NC+H/R group were transfected with plasmid or RNA oligo for 5 h followed by incubation with normal medium for 48 h, before H/R treatment. Then, the cell viability was detected by Cell Counting Kit‑8 assay. The content of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the media was examined by LDH assay. The mRNA expression of inflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factor‑α (TNF‑α), interleukin (IL)‑1β, and IL‑6 was detected by real‑time fluorescence quantitative PCR (RT‑qPCR). The levels of FOXO4 were measured by Western blot. Results Compared with the Con group, the H/R group showed decreases in FOXO4 levels (P<0.05) and cell viability (P<0.01), as well as increases in LDH content released in the media (P<0.01) and the mRNA levels of TNF‑α, IL‑1β, and IL‑6 (P<0.01). Compared with the H/R group, the OF+H/R group presented increases in FOXO4 levels (P<0.01) and cell viability (P<0.05), as well as decreases in LDH content released in the media (P<0.01) and the mRNA levels of TNF‑α, IL‑1β, and IL‑6 (P<0.01 or P<0.05). Compared with the H/R group, the siFOXO4+H/R group showed decreases in FOXO4 levels (P<0.05) and cell viability (P<0.05), as well as increase in LDH content released in the media (P<0.05) and the mRNA levels of TNF‑α, IL‑1β, and IL‑6 (P<0.05). Conclusion FOXO4 alleviates H/R injury in H9c2 cardiomyocytes, which is associated with the inhibition of inflammation.
|