GATA6 Inhibits Neuronal Autophagy and Ferroptosis in Cerebral ischemia-reperfusion Injury Through a miR-193b/ATG7 axis-dependent Mechanism

Ferroptosis is a newly described form of regulated necrotic cell death, which is engaged in the pathological cell death related to stroke, contributing to cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. Therefore, we performed this study to clarify the role of GATA6 in neuronal autophagy and ferroptosis in cerebral I/R injury. The cerebral I/R injury-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) as well as the downstream factors of GATA6 were predicted bioinformatically. Moreover, the relations between GATA6 and miR-193b and that between miR-193b and ATG7 were evaluated by chromatin immunoprecipitation and dual-luciferase reporter assays. Besides, neurons were treated with oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD), followed by overexpression of GATA6, miR-193b, and ATG7 alone or in combination to assess neuronal autophagy and ferroptosis. At last, in vivo experiments were performed to explore the impacts of GATA6/miR-193b/ATG7 on neuronal autophagy and ferroptosis in a rat model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO)-stimulated cerebral I/R injury. It was found that GATA6 and miR-193b were poorly expressed in cerebral I/R injury. GATA6 transcriptionally activated miR-193b to downregulate ATG7. Additionally, GATA6-mediated miR-193b activation suppressed neuronal autophagy and ferroptosis in OGD-treated neurons by inhibiting ATG7. Furthermore, GATA6/miR-193b relieved cerebral I/R injury by restraining neuronal autophagy and ferroptosis via downregulation of ATG7 in vivo. In summary, GATA6 might prevent neuronal autophagy and ferroptosis to alleviate cerebral I/R injury via the miR-193b/ATG7 axis.