Dataset Information

Expression and localisation of thymosin beta-4 in the developing human early fetal heart.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:The objective of this study was to investigate the expression and localisation of thymosin ?4 (T?4) in the developing human heart. T?4 is a cardioprotective protein which may have therapeutic potential. While T?4 is an endogenously produced protein with known importance during development, its role within the developing human heart is not fully understood. Elucidating the localisation of T?4 within the developing heart will help in understanding its role during cardiac development and is crucial for understanding its potential for cardioprotection and repair in the adult heart. METHODS:Expression of T?4 mRNA in the early fetal human heart was assessed by PCR using both ventricular and atrial tissue. Fluorescence immunohistochemistry was used to assess the localisation of T?4 in sections of early fetal human heart. Co-staining with CD31, an endothelial cell marker, and with myosin heavy chain, a cardiomyocyte marker, was used to determine whether T?4 is localised to these cell types within the early fetal human heart. RESULTS:T?4 mRNA was found to be expressed in both the atria and the ventricles of the early fetal human heart. T?4 protein was found to be primarily localised to CD31-expressing endothelial cells and the endocardium as well as being present in the epicardium. T?4-associated fluorescence was greater in the compact layer of the myocardial wall and the interventricular septum than in the trabecular layer of the myocardium. CONCLUSIONS:The data presented illustrates expression of T?4 in the developing human heart and demonstrates for the first time that T?4 in the human heart is primarily localised to endothelial cells of the cardiac microvasculature and coronary vessels as-well as to the endothelial-like cells of the endocardium and to the epicardium.

SUBMITTER: Saunders V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6226193 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Expression and localisation of thymosin beta-4 in the developing human early fetal heart.

Saunders Vinay V Dewing Jennifer M JM Sanchez-Elsner Tilman T Wilson David I DI

PloS one 20181109 11

<h4>Background</h4>The objective of this study was to investigate the expression and localisation of thymosin β4 (Tβ4) in the developing human heart. Tβ4 is a cardioprotective protein which may have therapeutic potential. While Tβ4 is an endogenously produced protein with known importance during development, its role within the developing human heart is not fully understood. Elucidating the localisation of Tβ4 within the developing heart will help in understanding its role during cardiac develop ...[more]

PMID: 30412598

Similar Datasets

Project description:While the adult human heart is primarily composed of cardiomyocytes, fibroblasts, endothelial and smooth muscle cells, the cellular composition during early development remains largely unknown. Reliable identification of fetal cardiac cell types using protein markers is critical to understand cardiac development and delineate the cellular composition of the developing human heart. This is the first study to use immunohistochemistry (IHC), flow cytometry and RT-PCR analyses to investigate the expression and specificity of commonly used cardiac cell markers in the early human fetal heart (8-12 post-conception weeks). The expression of previously reported protein markers for the detection of cardiomyocytes (Myosin Heavy Chain (MHC) and cardiac troponin I (cTnI), fibroblasts (DDR2, THY1, Vimentin), endothelial cells (CD31) and smooth muscle cells (α-SMA) were assessed. Two distinct populations of cTnI positive cells were identified through flow cytometry, with MHC positive cardiomyocytes showing high cTnI expression (cTnIHigh) while MHC negative non-myocytes showed lower cTnI expression (cTnILow). cTnI expression in non-myocytes was further confirmed by IHC and RT-PCR analyses, suggesting troponins are not cardiomyocyte-specific and may play distinct roles in non-muscle cells during early development. Vimentin (VIM) was expressed in cultured ventricular fibroblast populations and flow cytometry revealed VIMHigh and VIMLow cell populations in the fetal heart. MHC positive cardiomyocytes were VIMLow whilst CD31 positive endothelial cells were VIMHigh. Using markers investigated within this study, we characterised fetal human cardiac populations and estimate that 75-80% of fetal cardiac cells are cardiomyocytes and are MHC+/cTnIHigh/VIMLow, whilst non-myocytes comprise 20-25% of total cells and are MHC-/cTnILow/VIMHigh, with CD31+ endothelial cells comprising ~9% of this population. These findings show distinct differences from those reported for adult heart.

Dataset Information

Expression and localisation of thymosin beta-4 in the developing human early fetal heart.

Publications

Expression and localisation of thymosin beta-4 in the developing human early fetal heart.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets