Project description:Succinate dehydrogenase, which is known as mitochondrial complex II, has proven to be a fascinating machinery, attracting renewed and increased interest in its involvement in human diseases. Herein, we find that succinate dehydrogenase assembly factor 4 (SDHAF4) is downregulated in cardiac muscle in response to pathological stresses and in diseased hearts from human patients. Cardiac loss of Sdhaf4 suppresses complex II assembly and results in subunit degradation and complex II deficiency in fetal mice. These defects are exacerbated in young adults with globally impaired metabolic capacity and activation of dynamin-related protein 1, which induces excess mitochondrial fission and mitophagy, thereby causing progressive dilated cardiomyopathy and lethal heart failure in animals. Targeting mitochondria via supplementation with fumarate or inhibiting mitochondrial fission improves mitochondrial dynamics, partially restores cardiac function and prolongs the lifespan of mutant mice. Moreover, the addition of fumarate is found to dramatically improve cardiac function in myocardial infarction mice. These findings reveal a vital role for complex II assembly in the development of dilated cardiomyopathy and provide additional insights into therapeutic interventions for heart diseases.
Project description:Cardiac hypertrophy has been well-characterized at the level of transcription. During cardiac hypertrophy, genes normally expressed primarily during fetal heart development are re-expressed, and this fetal gene program is believed to be a critical component of the hypertrophic process. Recently, alternative splicing of mRNA transcripts has been shown to be temporally regulated during heart development, leading us to consider whether fetal patterns of splicing also reappear during hypertrophy.We hypothesized that patterns of alternative splicing occurring during heart development are recapitulated during cardiac hypertrophy. Here we present a whole-transcriptome study of isoform expression during pressure-overload cardiac hypertrophy induced by 10 days of transverse aortic constriction (TAC) in rats and in developing fetal rat hearts compared to sham-operated adult rat hearts, using high-throughput sequencing of poly(A) tail mRNA. Quantification of isoform expression in fetal rat hearts, pressure-overloaded rat hearts, and sham-operated rat hearts by Illumina GAIIx in triplicate
Project description:Antenatal hypoxia has critial impacts on fetal heart development. The molecular mechanism of the antenaltal hypoxia effect on the heart development is still unknown. We performed DNA methylome and transcriptome analyses of antenatal hypoxia induced rat fetal and adult offspring hearts to understand the hypoxia-mediated epigenomic programming in the heart development. Heart tissue from fetal (E21) and adult rat (5 months old) were collected. mRNA and genomic DNA methylation profiles of the heart tissue were generated by RNAseq and reduced representation bisulfite seuqencing (RRBS) techniques. We found 323 and 112 differential expressed genes between control and hypoxia groups in the fetal and adult hearts, respectively. Meanwhile, 2828 and 2193 differential methylated regions were identified in the fetal and adult hearts. Furthermore, opposite gobal DNA methylation pattern changes in transcription start site regions (TSS ± 1kb) were observed between fetal and adult hearts. Combining transcriptome, data indicates a significant difference in the responding genes and pathways between fetal and adult hearts in responding to the antenatal hypoxia. Our study provides an initial framework and new insights into fetal hypoxia-mediated epigenetic programming of pro-inflammatory phenotype in the heart development, linking antenatal stress, and developmental programming of heart vulnerability to disease later in life.
Project description:Antenatal hypoxia has critial impacts on fetal heart development. The molecular mechanism of the antenaltal hypoxia effect on the heart development is still unknown. We performed DNA methylome and transcriptome analyses of antenatal hypoxia induced rat fetal and adult offspring hearts to understand the hypoxia-mediated epigenomic programming in the heart development. Heart tissue from fetal (E21) and adult rat (5 months old) were collected. mRNA and genomic DNA methylation profiles of the heart tissue were generated by RNAseq and reduced representation bisulfite seuqencing (RRBS) techniques. We found 323 and 112 differential expressed genes between control and hypoxia groups in the fetal and adult hearts, respectively. Meanwhile, 2828 and 2193 differential methylated regions were identified in the fetal and adult hearts. Furthermore, opposite gobal DNA methylation pattern changes in transcription start site regions (TSS ± 1kb) were observed between fetal and adult hearts. Combining transcriptome, data indicates a significant difference in the responding genes and pathways between fetal and adult hearts in responding to the antenatal hypoxia. Our study provides an initial framework and new insights into fetal hypoxia-mediated epigenetic programming of pro-inflammatory phenotype in the heart development, linking antenatal stress, and developmental programming of heart vulnerability to disease later in life.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of the atrioventricular canal from e10.5 mouse hearts comparing wild-type control with Tbx3 GH/N hypomorphic mutant microdissected tissue. The goal was to identify direct and indirect targets of the transcription factor Tbx3, because Tbx3 is expressed in the AVC and hypomorphs develop embryonic AV conduction block at e12.5. Two-condition experiment, wild-type control and Tbx3 mutant AVC tissue. Tissue from 5 hearts was pooled to make each sample. Biological replicates: 4.
Project description:We profiled the gene expression/splicing program of normal and hnRNP U-deficient mouse hearts by RNA-seq. RNA-seq profiles of control and Hnrnpu mutant hearts at postnatal day 14. Hnrnpu mutant hearts were generated by breeding the Hnrnpu conditional knockout mice with Ckmm-Cre transgenic mice.
Project description:Total RNA was isolated from 3 WT and 3 ERRalpha null hearts and independent hybridizations were performed using MOE430 2.0 microarrays. Expression profiling was conducted to determine changes in gene expression in hearts lacking ERRa. The expression of genes involved in heart and muscle development, muscle contraction, lipid metabolism, OxPhos, protein metabolism and transcription were affected by the loss of ERRa. Experiment Overall Design: 3 hearts from WT and 3 hearts from ERRalpha-null mice were used in the study. The expression of genes in the ERRalpha KO hearts were compared to the reference WT hearts.
Project description:Muscle ring finger (MuRF) proteins have been implicated in the transmission of mechanical forces to nuclear cell signaling pathways through their association with the sarcomere. We recently reported that MuRF1, but not MuRF2, regulated pathologic cardiac hypertrophy in vivo. This was surprising since MuRF1 and MuRF2 interact redundantly with sarcomeric proteins in yeast two hybrid studies, and form both homo- and hetero-dimers with each other. To determine if MuRF1 and MuRF2 were functionally redundant during development, we created mice lacking either 3 or 4 of the MuRF1 and MuRF2 alleles and compared them functionally. Surprisingly, only mice missing all four MuRF1 and MuRF2 alleles (MuRF1-/-//MuRF2-/-) developed a spontaneous hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - mice that were null for one of the genes, but heterozygous for the other (i.e. MuRF1-/-//MuRF2+/- or MuRF1+/-//MuRF2-/-) were phenotypically identical to wild type mice. Electron microscopy of the hearts of MuRF1-/-//MuRF2-/-(MuRF1/MuRF2 DN) mice identified altered Z disc and M line architecture, and a distinct swelling of mitochondria. MuRF1-/-//MuRF2-/- mouse hearts displayed increased expression of genes associated with fetal cardiac metabolism, including smooth muscle actin and b myosin heavy chain, suggesting that the cardiac hypertrophy seen in these mice was associated with a reversion to a fetal gene program. Despite our prediction that we would also see an increase in glucose compared to fatty acid oxidation (another trait of fetal cardiac metabolism) we saw that MuRF1-/-//MuRF2-/- heart homogenates oxidized significantly less glucose compared to controls, suggesting an important role for MuRF1 and MuRF2 in the regulation of glucose metabolism in vivo. This study identifies a previously unreported redundancy in the function of MuRF proteins in normal cardiac development. Keywords: Genetic modification. Four strain-matched groups of 12 week old mice were investigated: 1) MuRF1 -/- MuRF2 -/-; 2) MuRF1 +/+ MuRF2 +/+; 3) MuRF1 -/- MuRF2 +/-; 4) MuRF1 +/- MuRF2 -/-. Biological replicates: 4 WT, 4 MuRF1 -/- // MuRF2 -/-, 4 MuRF1 +/- //MuRF2 -/-, 4 MuRF1 -/- // MuRF2 +/-. Hearts harvested. One replicate per array.
Project description:Pregnant C57Bl6N mice were treated with 0 (corn oil), 1.5, 3.0, or 6.0 ug/kg TCDD on gd14.5. Fetal hearts were collected on gd17.5. Hearts from each litter were pooled onto one chip. 4 replicates of each condition were run on affymetrix MG_U74Av2 chips, using standard affymetrix protocols and controls. Keywords: dose-response, 3 doses plus corn oil control, 4 replicates