Project description:Yin Yang 2 (YY2) is a member of the Yin Yang family of transcription factors. Although the bioactivity of YY2 has been previously studied, its role in cardiovascular diseases is not known. We observed the increased expression of YY2 in failing human hearts compared with control hearts, raising the question of whether YY2 is involved in the pathogenesis of cardiomyopathy. To investigate the potential contribution of YY2 to the development of cardiomyopathy, we crossed two transgenic (Tg) mouse lines, pCAG-YY2-Tg+ and -MHC-Cre, to generate two independent double transgenic (dTg) mouse lines in which the conditional cardiomyocyte-specific expression of YY2 driven by the -MHC promoter was mediated by Cre recombinase, starting at embryonic day 9.0. In dTg mice, we observed partial embryonic lethality and hearts with defective cardiomyocyte proliferation. Surviving dTg mice from both lines developed cardiomyopathy and heart failure that occurred with aging, showing different degrees of severity that were associated with the level of transgene expression. The development of cardiomyopathy was accompanied by increased levels of cardiac disease markers, apoptosis, and cardiac fibrosis. Our studies further revealed that the Cre-mediated cardiomyocyte-specific increase in YY2 expression led to increased levels of Beclin 1 and LC3II, indicating that YY2 is involved in mediating autophagic activity in mouse hearts in vivo. Also, compared with control hearts, dTG mouse hearts showed increased JNK activity. Because autophagy and JNK activity are important for maintaining cardiac homeostasis, the dysregulation of these signaling pathways may contribute to YY2-induced cardiomyopathy and heart failure in vivo.
Project description:Yin Yang 1 (YY1) is a critical transcription factor controlling cell proliferation, development and DNA damage responses. Although two homologous Drosophila YY family members (pleiohomeotic (pho)) and pleiohomeotic-like (phol)) are redundant, the functional significance of a recently described mammalian YY1-like gene (YY2) is unknown. Using microarray and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), we found that lentiviral constructs containing short hairpin loop YY1- and YY2-specific inhibitory RNAs (shYY1 and shYY2) caused significant changes in both redundant and distinguishable expression patterns. Ribosomal protein genes were the most significant gene set up-regulated by both shYY1 and shYY2, although combined shYY1/shYY2 knockdowns were not additive. In contrast, shYY2 reversed anti-proliferative effects of shYY1 on E2F target genes, and shYY2 particularly altered UV damage response, platelet-specific genes and mitochondrial function genes. The most YY2-specific gene was the platelet glycoprotein CD36 whose ligand is thrombospondin - a key UV response gene. We found that decreases in YY1 or YY2 caused inverse changes in UV sensitivity, and that their combined loss reversed their respective individual effects. Taken together, our studies show that YY2 is not redundant to YY1, and YY2 is a significant regulator of genes previously thought to uniquely respond to YY1. Functions of thrombospondin and CD36 in inflammation, atherogenesis, innate immunity and malaria pathogenesis reveal new potential regulatory roles for YY1 and YY2. Four treatment groups were used that included control vector (pLKO) virus, shYY1, shYY2 and shYY1 combined with shYY2. Three replicas were performed for all except shYY2, where we performed four replicas. Target gene comparison of YY1 And YY2 homologous genes.
Project description:Affymetrix whole genome gene and miRNA chips during the development period (from E10.5 to E19.5) and additionally included expression data of adult and old murine heart tissues For a more comprehensive understanding of the potential effects of miRNA for heart development, we carried out the first study of time-resolved parallel profiling of mRNA and microRNA levels in the developing murine heart and identify the dynamical activation or repression of numerous biological processes and signalling pathways
Project description:Affymetrix whole genome gene (mRNA) and miRNA expression data during the development period (from E10.5 to E19.5) and expression data of adult (10 weeks old mice) as well as old (14 months old mice) murine heart tissues For a more comprehensive understanding of the potential effects of miRNA for heart development, we carried out the first study of time-resolved parallel profiling of mRNA and miRNA levels in the developing murine heart and identify the dynamical activation or repression of numerous biological processes and signalling pathways