Abstract 539: MicroRNA-27b Regulates Salt-Inducible Kinase 1 (SIK1) in Vascular Fibrosis

Arterial fibrosis is one of the main underlying causes of vascular stiffness and various associated diseases, such as hypertension, congestive heart failure, aortic aneurysm development and renal failure. Consequently there is a growing interest in (patho)-mechanisms governing the underlying process of arterial fibrosis and successive vascular stiffness. Recently, a novel class of small noncoding RNAs, termed microRNAs (miRs), have emerged as powerful cellular regulators in disease processes. Furthermore, they have become an intriguing target for therapeutic intervention. Aim of the present study was to explore whether miRs are regulating the expression of salt-inducible kinase 1 (SIK1), which we previously identified as a crucial regulator of fibrosis in heart-/kidney- failure and arterial hypertension. Using different bioinformatic target prediction algorithms, we identified several miRs with predicted conserved sites on the Sik1 gene, including miRs-27a/b, -130a, -148a/b and -152. By analyzing aorta, h...