MicroRNA-140 is elevated and mitofusin-1 is downregulated in the right ventricle of the Sugen5416/hypoxia/normoxia model of pulmonary arterial hypertension.

We show that in an experimental model of severe pulmonary arterial hypertension, miR-140 is significantly upregulated in the hypertrophic right ventricle, and its target protein mitofusin-1 is significantly downregulated. The increase in miR-140 is significantly correlated with increase in right ventricular systolic pressure and right ventricle hypertrophy.