Single nucleus RNA sequencing and functional in vivo studies reveal TCF21 as a protective regulator in cardiac fibrosis
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE270517 | GEO | 2025/06/27
REPOSITORIES: GEO
Similar Datasets
Project description:Tissue fibrosis and organ dysfunction are hallmarks of age-related diseases including heart failure, but it remains elusive whether there is a common pathway to induce both events. Through single-cell RNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, and genetic perturbation, we elucidate that high-temperature requirement A serine peptidase 3 (Htra3) is a critical regulator of cardiac fibrosis and heart failure by maintaining the identity of quiescent cardiac fibroblasts through degrading transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β). Pressure overload downregulates expression of Htra3 in cardiac fibroblasts and activated TGF-β signaling, which induces not only cardiac fibrosis but also heart failure through DNA damage accumulation and secretory phenotype induction in failing cardiomyocytes. Overexpression of Htra3 in the heart inhibits TGF-β signaling and ameliorates cardiac dysfunction after pressure overload. Htra3-regulated induction of spatio-temporal cardiac fibrosis and cardiomyocyte secretory phenotype are observed specifically in infarct regions after myocardial infarction. Integrative analyses of single-cardiomyocyte transcriptome and plasma proteome in human reveal that IGFBP7, which is a cytokine downstream of TGF-β and secreted from failing cardiomyocytes, is the most predictable marker of advanced heart failure. These findings highlight the roles of cardiac fibroblasts in regulating cardiomyocyte homeostasis and cardiac fibrosis through the Htra3-TGF-β-IGFBP7 pathway, which would be a therapeutic target for heart failure.
2022-03-03 | GSE168742 | GEO
Project description:To identify a novel target for the treatment of heart failure, we examined gene expression in the failing heart. Among the genes analyzed, 12/15 lipoxygenase (12/15-LOX) was markedly up-regulated in heart failure. To determine whether increased expression of 12/15-LOX causes heart failure, we established transgenic mice that overexpressed 12/15-LOX in cardiomyocytes. Echocardiography showed that 12/15-LOX transgenic mice developed systolic dysfunction. Cardiac fibrosis increased in 12/15-LOX transgenic mice with advancing age, and was associated with the infiltration of macrophages. Consistent with these observations, cardiac expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (Mcp-1) was up-regulated in 12/15-LOX transgenic mice compared with wild-type mice. Treatment with 12-hydroxy-eicosatetraenotic acid, a major metabolite of 12/15-LOX, increased MCP-1 expression in cardiac fibroblasts and endothelial cells, but not in cardiomyocytes. Inhibition of Mcp-1 reduced the infiltration of macrophages into the myocardium and prevented both systolic dysfunction and cardiac fibrosis in 12/15-LOX transgenic mice. Likewise, disruption of 12/15-LOX significantly reduced cardiac Mcp-1 expression and macrophage infiltration, thereby improving systolic dysfunction induced by chronic pressure overload. Our results suggest that cardiac 12/15-LOX is involved in the development of heart failure and that inhibition of 12/15-LOX could be a novel treatment for this condition. Heart failure is still one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Therefore, it is important to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of heart failure and develop more effective treatments for this condition. To clarify the molecular mechanisms of heart failure, we performed microarray analysis using cardiac tissue samples obtained from a hypertensive heart failure model (Dahl salt-sensitive rats). ~300 genes showed significant changes of expression in the failing hearts compared with control hearts. Among the genes analyzed, 12/15-lipoxygenase (12/15-LOX) was most markedly up-regulated in failing hearts compared with control hearts .
2009-06-06 | E-GEOD-16199 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Transcriptome analysis of RNA samples from whole heart Transverse aortic constriction (TAC) is a well-established method for studying the pathomechanisms of heart failure in animal models of cardiac hypertrophy. A number of studies have shown that the treatment of heart failure in this animal model of cardiac hypertrophy suggests that hypertrophy and fibrosis may be reversible. However, since TAC-release protocols that improve hemodynamics by releasing physical stenosis remain undefined, the histological characteristics and molecular biological regulatory mechanisms of the reversibility of cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis are unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to establish a TAC release model and investigate the reversibility and plasticity mechanisms of myocardial hypertrophy, fibrosis, and angiogenesis. Four weeks post-TAC surgery, TAC release was conducted by cutting the aortic stenosis sutures. The TAC group exhibited severe myocardial hypertrophy, fibrosis, and increased angiogenesis, along with diastolic dysfunction. Conversely, the TAC-release group showed reduced hypertrophy and fibrosis, and improved diastolic function. Gene expression analysis highlighted Regulator of Calcineurin 1 as a key player in cardiac function and histological changes post-TAC release. Rcan1 knockdown exacerbated myocardial hypertrophy and fibrosis in the TAC-release group. This study sheds light on the functional, structural, and histological changes in the heart induced by TAC release and elucidates some of its regulatory mechanisms.
2024-07-09 | GSE270186 | GEO
Project description:Background: The insulin/IGF/relaxin family represents a group of structurally related but functionally diverse proteins. The family member Relaxin-2 has been evaluated in clinical trials for its efficacy in the treatment of acute heart failure. In this study, we assessed the role of Insulin-like peptide 6 (Insl6), another member of this protein family, in murine heart failure models using genetic loss-of-function and protein delivery methods. Methods and Results: Insl6-deficient (Insl6-KO) and wild-type (C57BL/6N) mice were administered angiotensin II or isoproterenol via continuous infusion with an osmotic pump or via intraperitoneal injection once a day, respectively for 2 weeks. In both models, Insl6-KO mice exhibited greater cardiac systolic dysfunction and left ventricular dilatation hypertrophy. Cardiac dysfunction in the Insl6-KO mice was associated with more extensive cardiac fibrosis and greater expression of fibrosis-associated genes. The continuous infusion of chemically synthesized INSL6 significantly attenuated left ventricular systolic dysfunction and cardiac fibrosis induced by isoproterenol infusion. Gene expression profiling suggests Lxr/ Rxr signaling is activated in the isoproterenol-challenged hearts treated with INSL6 protein. Conclusions: Endogenous Insl6 protein inhibits cardiac systolic dysfunction and cardiac fibrosis in angiotensin II- and isoproterenol-induced cardiac stress models. The administration of recombinant Insl6 protein could have utility for the treatment of heart failure and cardiac fibrosis.
2018-05-31 | GSE102612 | GEO
Project description:Myocardial interstitial fibrosis is a common thread in multiple cardiovascular diseases including heart failure, atrial fibrillation, conduction disease and sudden cardiac death. To investigate the biologic pathways that underlie interstitial fibrosis in the human heart, we developed a machine learning model to measure myocardial T1 time, a marker of myocardial interstitial fibrosis, in 41,505 UK Biobank participants. Greater T1 time was associated with diabetes mellitus, renal disease, aortic stenosis, cardiomyopathy, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, conduction disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Mendelian randomization analysis supported a potential causal role for diabetes mellitus type 1 in myocardial interstitial fibrosis. In genome-wide association analysis, we identified 11 independent loci associated with native myocardial T1 time. The identified loci implicated genes involved in glucose transport (SLC2A12), iron homeostasis (HFE, TMPRSS6), tissue repair (ADAMTSL1, VEGFC), oxidative stress (SOD2), cardiac hypertrophy (MYH7B) and calcium signaling (CAMK2D). Transcriptome-wide association studies highlighted the role of expression of ADAMTSL1 and SLC2A12 in human cardiac tissue in modulating myocardial interstitial fibrosis. Using a TGFβ1-mediated cardiac fibroblast activation assay, we found that 9 out of the 11 genome-wide significant loci comprised genes that exhibited temporal changes in expression and/or open chromatin conformation supporting the biological relevance of these loci to myocardial fibrosis and myofibroblast cell state acquisition. Harnessing machine learning to perform large-scale phenotyping of interstitial fibrosis in the human heart, our results yield novel insights into biologically relevant pathways to myocardial fibrosis and prioritize a number of pathways for further investigation.
2023-03-11 | GSE225336 | GEO
Project description:Heart valve diseases, such as aortic valve stenosis (AS) and mitral valve regurgitation (MR), are leading causes of heart failure. However, myocardial proteome studies in AS and MR are extremely rare. We profiled the proteome of 75 human left ventricular myocardial biopsies (AS=41, MR=17, controls=17) and detected disease- and sex-specific protein expression alterations. Patients with AS, for example, showed higher abundance of fibrosis-related proteins and lower abundance of proteins related to energy metabolism and protein synthesis capacity with prominent sex differences. This might explain the higher amount of myocardial mass and fibrosis and lower systolic cardiac function especially observed in male AS in our cohort and might help to find specific proteins as treatment targets. Our work provides detailed insight into myocardial protein alterations in AS and MR and expands, in combination with clinical parameters, the understanding of cardiac remodeling in female and male patients, aiming to improve disease- and sex-specific therapy.
2022-12-13 | PXD023800 | Pride
Project description:Cardiac-specific PPARalpha transgenic (Tg-PPARalpha) mice show mild cardiac hypertrophy and systolic dysfunction. The failing heart phenotypes observed in Tg-PPARalpha are exacerbated by crossing with cardiac-specific Sirt1 transgenic (Tg-Sirt1) mice, whereas Tg-Sirt1 mice themselves do not show any cardiac hypertrophy or systolic dysfunction. To investigate the mechanism leading to the failing heart phenotypes in TgPPARalpha/Tg-Sirt1 bigenic mice, microarray analyses were performed. The microarray analyses revealed that many ERR target genes were downregulated in Tg-PPARalpha and in Tg-Sirt1, and they were further downregulated in the Tg-PPARalpha/Tg-Sirt1 bigenic mice. Four groups of cardiac-specific transgenic mice were used for the study, i.e., control, PPARalpha, Sirt1 and PPARalpha/Sirt1. Hearts were dissected after 10-11 weeks of male FVB background transgenic mice. Total RNA was prepared from the hearts to conduct the microarray analyses.
2011-12-01 | E-GEOD-33101 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Cardiac-specific PPARalpha transgenic (Tg-PPARalpha) mice show mild cardiac hypertrophy and systolic dysfunction. The failing heart phenotypes observed in Tg-PPARalpha are exacerbated by crossing with cardiac-specific Sirt1 transgenic (Tg-Sirt1) mice, whereas Tg-Sirt1 mice themselves do not show any cardiac hypertrophy or systolic dysfunction. To investigate the mechanism leading to the failing heart phenotypes in TgPPARalpha/Tg-Sirt1 bigenic mice, microarray analyses were performed. The microarray analyses revealed that many ERR target genes were downregulated in Tg-PPARalpha and in Tg-Sirt1, and they were further downregulated in the Tg-PPARalpha/Tg-Sirt1 bigenic mice.
2011-12-01 | GSE33101 | GEO
Project description:Inflammation and tissue fibrosis co-exist and are causally linked to organ dysfunction. However, the molecular mechanisms driving immune-fibroblast crosstalk in human cardiac disease remains unexplored, and there are currently no approved treatments that directly target cardiac fibrosis. Here, we performed multi-omic single-cell gene expression, epitope mapping, and chromatin accessibility profiling in 45 donors, acutely infarcted, and chronically failing human hearts. We identified a disease-associated fibroblast trajectory marked by cell surface expression of fibroblast activator protein (FAP), which diverged into distinct myofibroblasts and pro-fibrotic fibroblast populations, the latter resembling matrifibrocytes. We lineage traced FAP fibroblasts in vivo and showed that they contribute to the POSTN lineage but not the myofibroblast lineage. We assessed the applicability of experimental systems to model tissue fibrosis and demonstrated that 3 different in vivo mouse models of cardiac injury were superior compared to cultured human heart and dermal fibroblasts in recapitulating the human disease phenotype. Ligand-receptor analysis and spatial transcriptomics predicted that interactions between C-C chemokine receptor type 2 (CCR2) macrophages and fibroblasts mediated by interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) signaling drove the emergence of pro-fibrotic fibroblasts within spatially defined niches. In vivo, we deleted the IL-1 receptor on fibroblasts, the IL-1β ligand in CCR2 monocytes and macrophages, and inhibited IL-1β signaling using a monoclonal antibody and showed fewer pro-fibrotic fibroblasts, decreased cardiac fibrosis, and improved cardiac function. Herein, we characterize fibroblast lineage diversification in the failing heart and showed a subset of macrophages signal to fibroblasts via IL-1β and rewire their gene regulatory network and differentiation trajectory towards a pro-fibrotic fibroblast phenotype. These findings highlight the broader therapeutic potential of targeting inflammation to treat tissue fibrosis and preserve organ function.
2024-07-01 | GSE270904 | GEO
Project description:Inflammation and tissue fibrosis co-exist and are causally linked to organ dysfunction. However, the molecular mechanisms driving immune-fibroblast crosstalk in human cardiac disease remains unexplored, and there are currently no approved treatments that directly target cardiac fibrosis. Here, we performed multi-omic single-cell gene expression, epitope mapping, and chromatin accessibility profiling in 45 donors, acutely infarcted, and chronically failing human hearts. We identified a disease-associated fibroblast trajectory marked by cell surface expression of fibroblast activator protein (FAP), which diverged into distinct myofibroblasts and pro-fibrotic fibroblast populations, the latter resembling matrifibrocytes. We lineage traced FAP fibroblasts in vivo and showed that they contribute to the POSTN lineage but not the myofibroblast lineage. We assessed the applicability of experimental systems to model tissue fibrosis and demonstrated that 3 different in vivo mouse models of cardiac injury were superior compared to cultured human heart and dermal fibroblasts in recapitulating the human disease phenotype. Ligand-receptor analysis and spatial transcriptomics predicted that interactions between C-C chemokine receptor type 2 (CCR2) macrophages and fibroblasts mediated by interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) signaling drove the emergence of pro-fibrotic fibroblasts within spatially defined niches. In vivo, we deleted the IL-1 receptor on fibroblasts, the IL-1β ligand in CCR2 monocytes and macrophages, and inhibited IL-1β signaling using a monoclonal antibody and showed fewer pro-fibrotic fibroblasts, decreased cardiac fibrosis, and improved cardiac function. Herein, we characterize fibroblast lineage diversification in the failing heart and showed a subset of macrophages signal to fibroblasts via IL-1β and rewire their gene regulatory network and differentiation trajectory towards a pro-fibrotic fibroblast phenotype. These findings highlight the broader therapeutic potential of targeting inflammation to treat tissue fibrosis and preserve organ function.
2024-07-01 | GSE270875 | GEO