The innate immune regulator MyD88 dampens fibrosis during zebrafish heart regeneration
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ABSTRACT: This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below. The innate immune response is triggered rapidly after injury and its spatiotemporal dynamics are critical for regeneration, but many questions remain about its exact role. Here we show that MyD88, a key component of the innate immune response, controls not only the inflammatory but also the fibrotic response during zebrafish cardiac regeneration. We find in cryoinjured myd88-/- ventricles a significant reduction in neutrophil and macrophage numbers as well as the expansion of a collagen-rich endocardial population. Further analyses reveal compromised PI3K/AKT pathway activation in the myd88-/- endocardium and increased myofibroblasts and scarring. Notably, endothelial-specific overexpression of myd88 reverses these neutrophil, fibrotic, and scarring phenotypes. Mechanistically, we identify the endocardial-derived chemokine gene cxcl18b as a target of the MyD88-signaling pathway, and using loss- and gain-of-function tools show that it controls neutrophil recruitment. Altogether, these findings shed light on the pivotal role of MyD88 in modulating inflammation and fibrosis during tissue regeneration.
Project description:The innate immune system is triggered rapidly after injury and its spatiotemporal dynamics are critical for successful regeneration. MyD88 is a key component of the innate immune response; however, its role during regeneration remains unclear. Here we show that MyD88 controls not only the inflammatory but also the fibrotic response during zebrafish cardiac regeneration. Our data reveal a significant reduction in pro-inflammatory neutrophil and macrophage populations, as well as the expansion of a collagen-rich endocardial population in cryoinjured myd88-/- ventricles. Consistent with these findings, we observed increased myofibroblasts, fibrin abundance, and scarring in myd88-/- ventricles. Transcriptomic analyses of endocardial cells and immunostaining experiments reveal compromised PI3K/AKT pathway activation in the myd88-/- endocardium. Moreover, loss of MyD88 impairs cardiomyocyte proliferation and protrusive activity towards the injured area. Notably, endothelial-specific overexpression of myd88 reverses the neutrophil, fibrotic, and scarring phenotypes in cryoinjured myd88-/- ventricles. Mechanistically, we identify the endocardial-derived chemokine gene cxcl18b as a transcriptional target of the MyD88-signaling axis and using loss- and gain-of-function tools show that it controls neutrophil recruitment. Altogether, these findings shed light on the pivotal role of MyD88 in modulating inflammation and fibrosis, thereby emphasizing the strong impact of the innate immune response during tissue regeneration.
Project description:The innate immune response is triggered rapidly after injury and its spatiotemporal dynamics are critical for regeneration, but many questions remain about its exact role. Here we show that MyD88, a key component of the innate immune response, controls not only the inflammatory but also the fibrotic response during zebrafish cardiac regeneration. We find in cryoinjured myd88-/- ventricles a significant reduction in neutrophil and macrophage numbers as well as the expansion of a collagen-rich endocardial population. Further analyses reveal compromised PI3K/AKT pathway activation in the myd88-/- endocardium and increased myofibroblasts and scarring. Notably, endothelial-specific overexpression of myd88 reverses these neutrophil, fibrotic, and scarring phenotypes. Mechanistically, we identify the endocardial-derived chemokine gene cxcl18b as a target of the MyD88-signaling pathway, and using loss- and gain-of-function tools show that it controls neutrophil recruitment. Altogether, these findings shed light on the pivotal role of MyD88 in modulating inflammation and fibrosis during tissue regeneration.
Project description:The innate immune response is triggered rapidly after injury and its spatiotemporal dynamics are critical for regeneration, but many questions remain about its exact role. Here we show that MyD88, a key component of the innate immune response, controls not only the inflammatory but also the fibrotic response during zebrafish cardiac regeneration. We find in cryoinjured myd88-/- ventricles a significant reduction in neutrophil and macrophage numbers as well as the expansion of a collagen-rich endocardial population. Further analyses reveal compromised PI3K/AKT pathway activation in the myd88-/- endocardium and increased myofibroblasts and scarring. Notably, endothelial-specific overexpression of myd88 reverses these neutrophil, fibrotic, and scarring phenotypes. Mechanistically, we identify the endocardial-derived chemokine gene cxcl18b as a target of the MyD88-signaling pathway, and using loss- and gain-of-function tools show that it controls neutrophil recruitment. Altogether, these findings shed light on the pivotal role of MyD88 in modulating inflammation and fibrosis during tissue regeneration.
Project description:The zebrafish heart remarkably regenerates after a severe ventricular damage followed by inflammation, fibrotic tissue deposition and removal concomitant with cardiac muscle replacement. We have investigated the role of the endocardium in this regeneration process. 3D-whole mount imaging in injured hearts revealed that GFP-labelled endocardial cells in ET33mi-60A transgenic fish become rapidly activated and highly proliferative at 3 days post cryoinjury (dpci). Endocardial cells extensively expand within the injury site and organize to form a coherent structure at 9 dpci that persists throughout the regeneration process. Upon injury, endocardial cells strongly up-regulate the Notch pathway ligand delta like4 (dll4) and the Notch receptors notch1b, notch2 and notch3. Expression profiling showed that Notch signalling inhibition affects endocardial gene expression and genes related to extracellular matrix remodelling and inflammation. Gain- and loss-of-function experiments revealed that Notch is required for the organization of the endocardium, attenuation of the inflammatory response and cardiomyocyte proliferation. These results demonstrate a novel structural and signalling role for the endocardium during heart regeneration.
Project description:VEGFA administration has been explored as a pro-angiogenic therapy for cardiovascular diseases including heart failure for several years; however, many challenges remain. Here we investigate a different approach to augmenting VEGFA bioavailability, one that achieves more physiological VEGFA concentrations by deleting VEGFR1/FLT1, a VEGFA decoy receptor. We find that, following cryoinjury, zebrafish flt1 mutant hearts display enhanced coronary revascularization and endocardial expansion, increased cardiomyocyte dedifferentiation and proliferation, and decreased scarring. Suppressing Vegfa signaling in flt1 mutants abrogates the beneficial effects of flt1 deletion. Transcriptomic analyses of cryoinjured flt1 mutant hearts revealed enhanced endothelial MAPK/ERK signaling and downregulation of the transcription factor gene egr3. Using genetic tools, we observe egr3 upregulation in the regenerating endocardium and find that Egr3 promotes myofibroblast differentiation. These data suggest that with enhanced VEGFA bioavailability, the cardiac endothelium limits myofibroblast differentiation via egr3 downregulation, thereby providing a more permissive microenvironment for cardiomyocyte replenishment after injury.
Project description:The endocardium interacts with the myocardium to promote proliferation and morphogenesis during the later stages of heart development. However, the role of the endocardium in early cardiac ontogeny remains under-explored. Given the shared origin, subsequent juxtaposition, and essential cell-cell interactions of endocardial and myocardial cells throughout heart development, we hypothesized that paracrine signaling from the endocardium to the myocardium is critical for initiating early differentiation of myocardial cells. To test this, we generated an in vitro, endocardial-specific ablation model using the diphtheria toxin receptor under the regulatory elements of the NFATc1 genomic locus (NFATc1-DTR) Early treatment of NFATc1-DTR embryoid bodies with diphtheria toxin efficiently ablated endocardial cells, which significantly attenuated the percent of beating EBs in culture and expression of early and late myocardial differentiation markers. The addition of Bmp2 during endocardial ablation partially rescued myocyte differentiation, maturation and function. Therefore, we conclude that early stages of myocardial differentiation rely on endocardial paracrine signaling mediated in part by Bmp2. Our findings provide novel insight into early endocardial-myocardial interactions that can be explored to promote early myocardial development and growth.