Abstract: Objective  To explore the relationship between plasma miR16 and coronary heart disease(CHD), and to clarify the regulation of miR16 on the proliferation phenotype of vascular smooth muscle cells. Methods  Fortythree patients with coronary heart disease and 49 healthy volunteers were randomly selected. The expression intensity of plasma miR16 was detected by realtime fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). miR16 analogues were transfected into human vascular smooth muscle cells, and the proliferation activity of the cells was detected by CCK8 experiment. The expression of cyclin D1, D2 and E1 were detected by western blot. Results  The expression of plasma miR16 in CHD patients was significantly lower than that in  control group(P<0.05). Overexpression of miR16 significantly inhibited the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells and downregulated the expression of cyclin D1, D2 and E1. Conclusion  miR16 expression was decreased in plasma of patients with CHD. This miR may inhibit the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells through targeting the expression of cyclin D1, D2 and E1.

Key words: microRNA-16, coronary disease, proliferation, cyclins