Project description:BMPR2 mutation is the cause of most hereditary pulmonary arterial hypertension, but the common molecular consequence of different types of BMPR2 mutation is still not known. The goal of this study was to determine the common molecular consequences of three different classes of patient-derived BMPR2 mutation in vascular smooth muscle gene expression. Three different classes of BMPR2 mutation, wild-type BMPR2, or empty vector were stably transfected into A7R5 vascular smooth muscle cells, and expression compared.
Project description:BMPR2 mutation is the cause of most hereditary pulmonary arterial hypertension, but the common molecular consequence of different types of BMPR2 mutation is still not known. The goal of this study was to determine the common molecular consequences of three different classes of patient-derived BMPR2 mutation in vascular smooth muscle gene expression.
Project description:Familial pulmonary arterial hypertension (fPAH) is associated with mutations in BMPR2. Many of these mutations occur in the BMPR2 tail domain, leaving the SMAD functions intact. In order to determine the in vivo consequences of BMPR2 tail domain mutation, we created a smooth-muscle specific doxycycline inducible BMPR2 mutation with an arginine to termination mutation at amino acid 899. When these SM22-rtTA x TetO7-BMPR2R899X mice had transgene induced for 9 weeks, starting at 4 weeks of age, they universally developed pulmonary vascular pruning as assessed by fluorescent microangiography. Approximately half the time the induced animals developed elevated right ventricular systolic pressures (RVSP), associated with extensive pruning, muscularization of small pulmonary vessels, and development of large structural pulmonary vascular changes. These lesions included large numbers of macrophages and T-cells in their adventitial compartment, as well as CD133 positive cells in the lumen. Small vessels filled with CD45 positive and sometimes CD3 positive cells were a common feature in all SM22-rtTA x TetO7-BMPR2R899X mice. Gene array experiments show changes in stress response, muscle organization and function, proliferation and apoptosis, and developmental pathways before RVSP increases. Our results show that the primary phenotypic result of BMPR2 tail domain mutation in smooth muscle is pulmonary vascular pruning leading to elevated RVSP, associated with early dysregulation in multiple pathways with clear relevance to PAH. This model should be useful to the research community in examining early molecular and physical events in the development of PAH, and as a platform to validate potential treatments. Experiment Overall Design: Each array is an individual female mouse, age-matched, with two mice & arrays used for each of controls (transactivator only), BMPR2-R899X with normal RVSP, and BMPR2-R899X with high RVSP.
Project description:Familial pulmonary arterial hypertension (fPAH) is associated with mutations in BMPR2. Many of these mutations occur in the BMPR2 tail domain, leaving the SMAD functions intact. In order to determine the in vivo consequences of BMPR2 tail domain mutation, we created a smooth-muscle specific doxycycline inducible BMPR2 mutation with an arginine to termination mutation at amino acid 899. When these SM22-rtTA x TetO7-BMPR2R899X mice had transgene induced for 9 weeks, starting at 4 weeks of age, they universally developed pulmonary vascular pruning as assessed by fluorescent microangiography. Approximately half the time the induced animals developed elevated right ventricular systolic pressures (RVSP), associated with extensive pruning, muscularization of small pulmonary vessels, and development of large structural pulmonary vascular changes. These lesions included large numbers of macrophages and T-cells in their adventitial compartment, as well as CD133 positive cells in the lumen. Small vessels filled with CD45 positive and sometimes CD3 positive cells were a common feature in all SM22-rtTA x TetO7-BMPR2R899X mice. Gene array experiments show changes in stress response, muscle organization and function, proliferation and apoptosis, and developmental pathways before RVSP increases. Our results show that the primary phenotypic result of BMPR2 tail domain mutation in smooth muscle is pulmonary vascular pruning leading to elevated RVSP, associated with early dysregulation in multiple pathways with clear relevance to PAH. This model should be useful to the research community in examining early molecular and physical events in the development of PAH, and as a platform to validate potential treatments. Keywords: Disease state analysis