Inflammation has been implicated in the pathogenesis of
myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury (MIRI). Previous studies have confirmed that deleted in
esophageal cancer 1 (DEC1) is an important
transcription factor in
inflammation. However, the role of DEC1 in MIRI remains unclear. The present study aimed to determine whether the downregulation of DEC1 by RNA interference alleviated
inflammation to protect against MIRI. Adult Sprague-Dawley rats (n=48) were randomly divided into four groups:
Sham; I/R; adenovirus expressing
green fluorescent protein control (Ad-G-Control); and DEC1-targeting RNA interference (Ad-G-DEC1) groups. Following gene delivery 4 days later, the rat myocardial I/R model was established and myocardial
enzymes [
creatine kinase (CK) and
lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)] were detected.
Hematoxylin and
eosin (H&E) staining was performed to evaluate the myocardial damage and the
infarct area was assessed using
Evans Blue/
triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining. The inflammatory mediators
interleukin (IL)-β and
tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α were also detected using ELISA kits to assess the inflammatory response. Finally, western blotting and reverse transcription-quantitative PCR were used to analyze the expression levels of associated
proteins and mRNAs. Ad-G-DEC1 RNA interference markedly decreased DEC1 expression levels. In addition, following the downregulation of DEC1 expression, the
infarct size, CK, LDH,
Toll-like receptor (TLR)4, NF-κB, IL-β and TNF-α levels were all significantly decreased. In conclusion, the results of the present study suggested that the downregulation of DEC1 may decrease the
inflammation by suppressing the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway, which may represent a therapeutic target for MIRI.