Project description:Cardiomyocytes exhibit differential growth patterns throughout development. In fetal life the increase in cardiac mass is associated with hyperplastic growth and cardiomyocyte proliferation. The majority of fetal cardiomyocytes are also mononucleated. During the early neonatal period in mice there is a switch from hyperplastic to hypertrophic growth of cardiomyocytes. This period is characterized by bi-nucleation and polyploidization of cardiomyocyte nuclei and a decreased capacity for cardiomyocytes to proliferate and complete cytokinesis. Increases in myocardial mass occur predominantly via hypertrophic growth. Adult mammalian cardiomyocytes are generally accepted to have little or no proliferative capacity and to be terminally withdrawn from the cell cycle. The vast majority of adult murine cardiomyocytes are bi-nucleated. The present study sought to accurately establish the growth pattern of cardiomyocytes throughout development in mice and identify genes associated with the switch from hyperplastic to hypertrophic growth. These cell cycle associated genes are crucial to the understanding of the mechanisms of bi-nucleation, polyploidization and hypertrophy in the neonatal period. Cardiomyocytes were FACS sorted from the hearts of ED11-12 embryos, neonatal day 3-4 and adult (10 week) eGFP ?-MHC mice whereby GFP expression is driven constitutively by the ?-MHC promoter. Gene analyses identified genes whose expression was predicted to be particular to day 3 -4 neonatal cardiomyocytes, compared to embryonic or adult cells. Cell cycle associated genes are crucial to the understanding of the mechanisms of bi-nucleation and hypertrophy in the neonatal period, and offer attractive candidates for manipulation. Total RNA obtained from isolated cardiomyocytes from ED11-12; Neonatal day 3-4 and adult timepoints compared with each other. Several hearts per sample, RNA was pooled within samples. FACS samples were prepared in the following manner: embryonic, neonatal and adult hearts were dissected and dissociated to single cell solution with Liberase Blendzyme 3 (0.1 mg/ml) (Roche Diagnostics), washed and spun down and resuspended in cardiomyocyte isolation buffer (130 mM NaCl; 5 mM KCl; 1.2 mM KH2PO4; 6 mM HEPES; 5 mM NaHCO3; 1 mM MgCl2; 5 mM Glucose).

Project description:Background - The inability of the adult mammalian heart to regenerate following injury represents a major barrier in cardiovascular medicine. In contrast, the neonatal mammalian heart retains a transient capacity for regeneration, which is lost shortly after birth. Defining the molecular mechanisms that govern regenerative capacity in the neonatal period remains a central goal in cardiac biology. Here, we construct a transcriptional atlas of multiple cardiac cell populations, which enables comparative analyses of the regenerative (neonatal) versus non-regenerative (adult) state for the first time. Methods - Cardiomyocytes, fibroblasts, leukocytes and endothelial cells from infarcted and non-infarcted neonatal (P1) and adult (P56) hearts were isolated by enzymatic dissociation and FACS. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed on these cell populations to generate a transcriptomic atlas of the major cardiac cell populations during cardiac development, repair and regeneration. In addition, we surveyed the epigenetic landscape of cardiomyocytes during post-natal maturation by performing deep sequencing of accessible chromatin regions using the Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin (ATAC-seq) from purified cardiomyocyte nuclei (P1, P14 and P56). Results - Profiling of cardiomyocyte and non-myocyte transcriptional programs uncovered several injury responsive genes across regenerative and non-regenerative time points. However, the majority of transcriptional changes in all cardiac cell types resulted from developmental maturation from neonatal stages to adulthood rather than activation of a distinct regeneration-specific gene program. Furthermore, adult leukocytes and fibroblasts reverted to a neonatal state and re-activated a neonatal proliferative network following infarction. In contrast, cardiomyocytes failed to re-activate the neonatal proliferative network following infarction, which was associated with loss of chromatin accessibility around cell cycle genes during post-natal maturation. Conclusions – This work provides a comprehensive transcriptional resource of multiple cardiac cell populations during cardiac development, repair and regeneration. Our findings define a transcriptional program underpinning the neonatal regenerative state and identifies an epigenetic barrier to re-induction of the regenerative program in adult cardiomyocytes.

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