Dysregulated Microrna-30c and-376c Promotes Functional Disability of Diabetic Cardiac Stem Cells

Background: Diabetes mellitus leads to a progressive loss in the number and functional efficacy of cardiac stem cells (CSCs) and transplanted CSCs from diabetic heart failed to improve the recovery of damaged heart tissue. However, the underlying mechanism for this functional deficit remains unknown. Our recent study showed marked deregulation of microRNAs (miRs) in diabetic heart. Objective: To investigate if deregulated miRs are the underlying molecular mechanism responsible for functional deterioration of diabetic CSCs. Methods and Results: CSCs were isolated from type-2 diabetic and age-matched non-diabetic mice hearts (n=9 each) using collagenase digestion, followed by purification of the cells using stem cell specific antigen-1 (Sca-1) magnetic labelling. Following one week of culture, total RNA was extracted and miR expression profiles were analysed using an nCounter miR expression assay (Nanostring Technologies). Among 601 miRs evaluated, 14 miRs were significantly altered (12 up-regulated and 2 d...