[Effects of chronic intermittent hypoxia and reoxygenation on insulin resistance and skeletal muscle miR-27a-3p/PPARγ/IRS1/PI3K/AKT expressions in rats].

Objective: To investigate the effects of chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) and reoxygenation on insulin resistance (IR) and expressions of miR-27a-3p/PPARγ/IRS1/PI3K/AKT in rat skeletal muscle.

Methods: GEO database was used for screening the differentially expressed miRNAs in CIH, and their target genes were subjected to GO and KEGG enrichment analysis followed by construction of the miRNA-mRNA-pathway regulatory network using Cytoscape. In the animal experiment, 48 male SD rats were randomly divided into normoxia group and CIH group (8 weeks of CIH followed by 4 weeks of normoxic recovery). Blood and skeletal muscle samples were collected at baseline, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks to evaluate the changes in fasting blood glucose (FBG) and fasting insulin (FINS) levels and muscular pathology. RT-qPCR and Western blotting were used to detect the changes in the expressions of miR-27a-3p, PPARγ, GLUT4, IRS1, p-IRS1, PI3K, p-AKT and AKT in the muscular tissues.

Results: No muscular miRNA datasets for CIH were available in GEO database, from which only a kidney-related dataset (GSE202480) was obtained, based on which a total of 165 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified. GO/KEGG analysis suggested that these miRNAs were involved in muscular regulation and insulin signaling. The miRNA-mRNA-pathway network highlighted miR-27a-3p as a crucial regulator in the PPAR and PI3K/AKT pathway. In the animal experiment, the rats subjected to CIH for 8 weeks showed significantly increased FBG, FINS, HOMA-IR, and PPARγ levels, loose muscle fiber arrangement, decreased cross-sectional area of the muscle fibers, and lowered expressions of miR-27a-3p, p-IRS1/IRS1, PI3K, and p-AKT/AKT in the skeletal muscles.

Conclusion: CIH increases IR, causes skeletal muscle pathology, downregulates miR-27a-3p expression, upregulates PPARγ expression, and inhibits IRS1/PI3K/AKT insulin signaling in the skeletal muscles of rats, and these changes can be reversed by reoxygenation. MiR-27a-3p may participate in CIH-induced IR by modulating the PPAR γ/IRS1/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.