Project description:Aims: Cardiac hypertrophy is a compensatory response to pressure overload, leading to heart failure. Recent studies have demonstrated that Rho is immediately activated in left ventricles after pressure overload, and that Rho signaling plays crucial regulatory roles in actin cytoskeleton rearrangement during cardiac hypertrophic responses. However, the mechanisms by which Rho and its downstream proteins control actin dynamics during hypertrophic responses remain not fully understood. In this study, we identified the pivotal roles of mammalian homologue of Drosophila diaphanous (mDia) 1, a Rho-effector molecule, in pressure overload-induced ventricular hypertrophy. Methods and Results: Male wild-type (WT) and mDia1-knockout (mDia1KO) mice (10–12 weeks old) were subjected to a transverse aortic constriction (TAC) or sham operation. The heart weight/tibia length ratio, cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area, left ventricular wall thickness, and expression of hypertrophy-specific genes were significantly decreased in mDia1KO mice 3 weeks after TAC, and the mortality rate was higher at 12 weeks. Echocardiography indicated that mDia1 deletion increased the severity of heart failure 8 weeks after TAC. Importantly, we could not observe apparent defects in cardiac hypertrophic responses in mDia3-knockout mice. Microarray analysis revealed that mDia1 was involved in the induction of hypertrophy related genes, including immediate early genes (IEGs), in pressure overloaded hearts. Loss of mDia1 attenuated activation of the mechanotransduction pathway in TAC-operated mice hearts. We also found that mDia1 was involved in stretch-induced activation of the mechanotransduction pathway and gene expression of c-fos in neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes (NRVMs). mDia1 regulated the F/G-actin ratio in response to pressure overload in mice. Additionally, increases in nuclear myocardin-related transcription factors (MRTFs) and serum response factor (SRF) were perturbed in response to pressure overload in mDia1KO mice and to mechanical stretch in mDia1 depleted NRVMs. Conclusions: mDia1, through actin dynamics, is involved in compensatory cardiac hypertrophy in response to pressure overload.

Project description:Aims: We investigate sex differences and the role of oestrogen receptor beta (ERbeta) in a mouse model of pressure overload-induced myocardial hypertrophy. Methods and results: We performed transverse aortic constriction (TAC) or sham surgery in male and female wild-type (WT) and ER knockout (ERbeta-/-) C57Bl6 mice. All mice were characterised by echocardiography and haemodynamic measurements and were sacrificed nine weeks after surgery. Left ventricular (LV) samples were analysed by microarray profiling, real-time RT-PCR and histology. After nine weeks, WT males showed more hypertrophy and heart failure signs than WT females. Notably, WT females developed a concentric form of hypertrophy, while males developed eccentric hypertrophy. These sex differences were abolished in ERbeta-/- mice. ERbeta deletion augmented the TAC-induced increase in cardiomyocyte diameter in both sexes. Gene expression profiling revealed that male WT hearts had a stronger induction of matrix-related genes and a stronger repression of mitochondrial genes than female hearts. ERbeta-/- mice exhibited a different transcriptome. Induction of pro-apoptotic genes after TAC occurred in ERbeta-/- mice of both sexes with a stronger expression in ERbeta-/- males. Histological analysis revealed, that cardiac fibrosis was more pronounced in male WT TAC than in female mice. This was abolished in ERbeta-/- mice. Apoptosis was significantly induced in both sexes of ERbeta-/- TAC mice, but it was most prominent in males. Conclusion: Female sex offers protection against ventricular chamber dilation in the TAC model. Both the female sex and ER attenuate the development of fibrosis and apoptosis; thus slowing the progression to heart failure. The influence of sex (male/female) and estrogen receptor beta expression (ERbeta knockout/wildtype) on cardiac hypertrophy (transverse aortic constriction/sham operated) was investigated. The left ventricular transcriptome of four individual mice for each combination of the three factors (sex, genotype, surgery) was detected with Affymetrix RAE 430 2.0 GeneChip arrays.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Cardiac hypertrophy compensates for increased biomechanical stress of the heart induced by prevalent cardiovascular pathologies, but can result in cardiac failure if left untreated. We hypothesized that the tail-anchored protein Dysferlin with multiple Ca2+-binding C2-domains is critical for the integrity of the transverse-axial tubule (TAT) network inside cardiomyocytes, and contributes to the proliferation of TAT endomembranes during pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy. OBJECTIVE: To reveal the impact of the membrane fusion and repair protein Dysferlin on TAT network stabilization and proliferation necessary for the hypertrophic growth of cardiomyocytes. METHODS AND RESULTS: Super-resolution light and electron microscopy of mouse cardiomyocytes identified a specific localization of Dysferlin in a vesicular compartment in nanometric proximity to contact sites of the TAT network with the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), a.k.a. junctional complexes for Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release. Mass spectrometry was used to characterize the cardiac Dysferlin interactome, thereby identifying a novel protein interaction with the membrane-tethering SR protein Juncophilin-2, a known interactor of L-type Ca2+ channels and Ryanodine Receptor Ca2+ release channels in junctional complexes. While the Dysferlin knockout caused a mild progressive phenotype of dilated cardiomyopathy in the mouse heart, global proteome analysis revealed changes preceding systolic failure. Following transverse aortic constriction (TAC), Dysferlin protein expression was significantly increased in hypertrophied wild-type myocardium, while Dysferlin knockout animals presented markedly reduced left-ventricular hypertrophy. Live-cell membrane imaging demonstrated a profound reorganization of the TAT network in wild-type left-ventricular myocytes post-TAC with robust proliferation of axial tubules, which critically depended on the increased expression of Dysferlin within newly-emerging tubule components. CONCLUSIONS: Dysferlin represents a new molecular target in cardiac disease that protects the integrity of tubule-SR junctional complexes for regulated excitation-contraction coupling, and controls TAT network reorganization and tubular membrane proliferation in cardiomyocyte hypertrophy induced by pressure-overload.

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Gata4 is required for postnatal cardiac function and protection from pressure overload-induced heart failure

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