Abstract: Objective To investigate the Effects of human telomerase reverse transcriptase on myocardial apoptosis induced by Anoxia/Reoxigenation in rats. Methods Adenovirus mediated transfection of TERT gene into myocardial cells of neonatal rats, lentivirus-mediated siRNA silencing the TERT. To investigate the protective effects of human telomerase reverse transcriptase on myocardial Anoxia/Reoxigenation injury in rats. Results The apoptosis rate of A/Ro group was significantly higher than that of the control group. Compared with the A/Ro group, TERT over-expression group could significantly reduce the rate of apoptosis, and over-expression of TERT decreased the expression of CytC gene and increased the expression of P21 gene in cardiomyocytes(P<0.05). Conclusions Over expression of telomerase reverse transcriptase inhibits myocardial apoptosis induced by A/Ro. The mechanism is related to the regulation to the expression of P21 and CytC genes.

Key words: TERT, myocardial cell, Anoxia/Reoxigenation injury