It was also demonstrated that miR-133b-5p contributes to hypoxic preconditioning-mediated cardioprotection by inhibiting the activation of caspase-8 and caspase-3 apoptotic signalling, thereby reducing cardiomyocyte apoptosis following ischemia/reperfusion injury in vivo (Pan et al., 2018). Here, CASP3 is linked to ischemia.