Cardiomyocytes are essential to maintain the normal cardiac function. Ischemia, hypoxia, and drug stimulation can induce pathological apoptosis of cardiomyocytes which eventually leads to heart failure, arrhythmia, and other cardiovascular diseases. Understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate cardiomyocyte apoptosis is of great significance for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. In recent years, more and more evidences reveal that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important regulatory roles in myocardial cell apoptosis. They can modulate the expression of apoptosis-related genes at post-transcriptional level by altering the translation efficacy of target mRNAs or functioning as a precursor for miRNAs or competing for miRNA-mediated inhibition. Moreover, reversing the abnormal expression of lncRNAs can attenuate and even reverse the pathological apoptosis of cardiomyocytes. Therefore, apoptosis-related lncRNAs may become a potential new field for studying cardiomyocyte apoptosis and provide new ideas for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

Graphical abstract

中文翻译：

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不同应激源触发心肌细胞凋亡的长链非编码 RNA

心肌细胞对于维持正常的心脏功能至关重要。缺血、缺氧和药物刺激可诱导心肌细胞发生病理性凋亡，最终导致心力衰竭、心律失常等心血管疾病。了解调控心肌细胞凋亡的分子机制对于心血管疾病的防治具有重要意义。近年来，越来越多的证据表明长链非编码RNA（lncRNA）在心肌细胞凋亡中发挥重要的调控作用。它们可以通过改变靶 mRNA 的翻译效率或充当 miRNA 的前体或竞争 miRNA 介导的抑制作用，在转录后水平调节凋亡相关基因的表达。而且，逆转lncRNA的异常表达可以减弱甚至逆转心肌细胞的病理性凋亡。因此，凋亡相关lncRNAs可能成为研究心肌细胞凋亡的潜在新领域，为心血管疾病的治疗提供新思路。

图形概要