MiR-143 Mediates the TLR2/NF-κB Pathway to Attenuate AngII-induced Damage to VSMCs

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a perilous vascular disease with inflammatory response as its main feature. It is known that the expression of miR-143 is down-regulated in the human aortic aneurysm. In this study, we investigated the effect of miR-143 on AngII-induced VSMCs to learn the potential mechanisms of miR-143 on AAA at the cellular level. The experimental results showed that the expressions of IL-1β, MCP-1, MMP9/13, TLR2, and NF-κB p65 and the percentage of TUNEL-positive cells in AngII-VSMCs were increased significantly compared with the control group. miR-143 had the opposite result. When the expression of miR-143 was up-regulated, the expression of IL-β, MCP-1, and MMP9/13 and the percentage of TUNEL-positive cells in AngII-VSMCs was suppressed. With the transfection of miR-143 over-expression plasmid, IL-1β, MCP-1, and MMP9/13 and the percentage of TUNEL-positive cells were reversed, compared to the AngII group and the AngII+oe-TLR2+miR-143 mimic group. In AngII-induced mouse VSMC, the up-regulation of the miR-143 expression could inactivate the TLR2/NF-κB pathway, thereby alleviating inflammatory response, ECM degradation, and cell apoptosis.