Geniposide alleviates hypoxia-induced injury by down-regulation of lncRNA THRIL in rat cardiomyocytes derived H9c2 cells.

Geniposide (GEN) is an iridoid glycoside extracts from Gardenia jasminoides Ellis with antioxidant and anti-inflammarory properties. The objective of this study was to explore the effects of GEN on a cell model of myocardial infarction (MI). After transfection, hypoxia-stimulated H9c2 cells were treated with GEN. Cell viability and apoptosis were detected by Cell Counting kit-8 assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Cell cycle-, apoptosis- and signal pathway related proteins were examined by Western blot. The expression of THRIL was determined by qRT-PCR. In addition, in vivo experiments were performed in rats. Then the infarct size and the left ventricular (LV) end diastolic diameter (LVEDD), LV ejection fraction (LVEF) and LV fractional shortening (LVFS) were monitored. Results showed that treating H9c2 cells with GEN attenuated hypoxia-induced cell damage as cell viability was increased, and cell apoptosis was repressed. Meanwhile, THRIL was found to be down-regulated by GEN. The cardioprotective effects of GEN on H9c2 cells were attenuated when THRIL was overexpressed. Besides this, the phosphorylation of PI3K, AKT, JAK1 and STAT3 were up-regulated by GEN while down-regulated by THRIL overexpression. Moreover, GEN decreased infarct size and LVEDD, while increased LVEF and LVFS. Taken together, this study demonstrated that GEN alleviated cardiomyocytes damage and cardiac dysfunction possible through down-regulation of THRIL.