Project description:Rationale: Neonatal mice have the capacity to regenerate their hearts in response to injury, but this potential is lost after the first week of life. The transcriptional changes that underpin mammalian cardiac regeneration have not been fully characterized at the molecular level. Objective: The objectives of our study were to determine if myocytes revert the transcriptional phenotype to a less differentiated state during regeneration and to systematically interrogate the transcriptional data to identify and validate potential regulators of this process. Methods and Results: We derived a core transcriptional signature of injury-induced cardiac myocyte regeneration in mouse by comparing global transcriptional programs in a dynamic model of in vitro and in vivo cardiac myocyte differentiation, in vitro cardiac myocyte explant model, as well as a neonatal heart resection model. The regenerating mouse heart revealed a transcriptional reversion of cardiac myocyte differentiation processes including reactivation of latent developmental programs similar to those observed during de-stabilization of a mature cardiac myocyte phenotype in the explant model. We identified potential upstream regulators of the core network, including interleukin 13 (IL13), which induced cardiac myocyte cell cycle entry and STAT6/STAT3 signaling in vitro. We demonstrate that STAT3/periostin and STAT6 signaling are critical mediators of IL13 signaling in cardiac myocytes. These downstream signaling molecules are also modulated in the regenerating mouse heart. Conclusions: Our work reveals new insights into the transcriptional regulation of mammalian cardiac regeneration and provides the founding circuitry for identifying potential regulators for stimulating heart regeneration. Comparison of transcriptional programs of primary myocardial tissues sampled from neonatal mice and murine hearts undergoing post-injury regeneration, along with in vitro ESC-differentiated cardiomyocytes
Project description:The HH16/17 chicken proepicardium (PE) gives rise to the embryonic epicardium (Epi) which significantly contributes formation of the coronary vasculature during cardiac development. In contrast to explanted Epi cells, explanted PE cells can undergo differentiation into a cardiac myocyte phenotype. In order to assess which genes are associated with PE differentiation into distinc cellular lineages, two interconnented microarray gene-expression series were performed. 1: Gene-expression profiles at 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72 and 120 hours during cardiac myocyte differentiation from including the HH16/17 PE (t0h) were determined by hybridizing Cy3 and Cy5 labelled amplified RNA to the ArkGen 20K oligo arrays in a 2-color looped experiment design, i.e., hybridization of successive time-points per array, including dye swaps, resulting in four technical replicates for each time point. 2: Gene expression changes during normal embryonic Epi maturation were assess by hybridizing Epi from stages HH25, HH29, HH32 and HH37 in all possible pair-wise combinations, including dye-swaps, leading to 6 replicates per time point. To allow for valid comparisons between the Epi and untreated PE differentiation, these two array series were connected via hybridization of both Epi stage HH25 and HH29 with the PE explant at 48 hours in culture, with dye swaps. Keywords: time course, cardiac myocyte differentiation, embryonic coronary vessel formation, cell type comparison, mRNA expression Proepicardium to cardiac myocyte differentiation: 16 arrays for 8 time points [t0h,t12h,t24h,t36h,t48h,t60h,t72h,t120h]; successive time points hybridized per array in a loop design with dye swaps + Embryonic epicardium dfferentiation: 12 arrays for 4 time points [HH25,HH29,HH32,HH37]; all possible sample combination were hybridized with dye swaps + Epicardium to Proepicardium data connection: 4 arrays; comparing HH25 and HH29 Epicardium to t48h Proepicardium with dye swaps.
Project description:Rationale: Neonatal mice have the capacity to regenerate their hearts in response to injury, but this potential is lost after the first week of life. The transcriptional changes that underpin mammalian cardiac regeneration have not been fully characterized at the molecular level. Objective: The objectives of our study were to determine if myocytes revert the transcriptional phenotype to a less differentiated state during regeneration and to systematically interrogate the transcriptional data to identify and validate potential regulators of this process. Methods and Results: We derived a core transcriptional signature of injury-induced cardiac myocyte regeneration in mouse by comparing global transcriptional programs in a dynamic model of in vitro and in vivo cardiac myocyte differentiation, in vitro cardiac myocyte explant model, as well as a neonatal heart resection model. The regenerating mouse heart revealed a transcriptional reversion of cardiac myocyte differentiation processes including reactivation of latent developmental programs similar to those observed during de-stabilization of a mature cardiac myocyte phenotype in the explant model. We identified potential upstream regulators of the core network, including interleukin 13 (IL13), which induced cardiac myocyte cell cycle entry and STAT6/STAT3 signaling in vitro. We demonstrate that STAT3/periostin and STAT6 signaling are critical mediators of IL13 signaling in cardiac myocytes. These downstream signaling molecules are also modulated in the regenerating mouse heart. Conclusions: Our work reveals new insights into the transcriptional regulation of mammalian cardiac regeneration and provides the founding circuitry for identifying potential regulators for stimulating heart regeneration.
Project description:Engineered human cardiac tissues have been utilized for various biomedical applications, including drug testing, disease modeling, and regenerative medicine. However, the applications of cardiac tissues derived from human pluripotent stem cells are often limited due to their immaturity and lack of functionality. Therefore, in this study, we established a perfusable culture system based on in vivo-like heart microenvironments to improve human cardiac tissue fabrication. The integrated culture platform of a microfluidic chip and a three-dimensional heart extracellular matrix enhanced human cardiac tissue development and their structural and functional maturation. These tissues were comprised of cardiovascular lineage cells, including cardiomyocytes and cardiac fibroblasts derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells, as well as vascular endothelial cells. The resultant macroscale human cardiac tissues exhibited improved efficacy in drug testing (small molecules with various levels of arrhythmia risk), disease modeling (long QT syndrome and cardiac fibrosis), and regenerative therapy (myocardial infarction treatment). Therefore, our culture system can serve as a highly effective tissue-engineering platform to provide human cardiac tissues for versatile biomedical applications.
Project description:Dynamic fibroblast state transitions underlie the heart’s fibrotic response, raising the possibility that tactical control of these transitions could alter maladaptive fibrotic outcomes. Transcriptome maturation by Muscleblind-like 1 (MBNL1) has emerged as a driver of differentiated cell states. Indeed, MBNL1 expression is elevated in conjunction with profibrotic transcripts in lineage traced myofibroblasts and modeling this gain in function by fibroblast-specific overexpression of an MBNL1 transgene induced a myofibroblast transcriptional identity in healthy hearts and promoted maladaptive myocyte remodeling and scar maturation following injury. Both fibroblast-specific and myofibroblast-specific loss of MBNL1 limited scar production and maturation, which was ascribed to negligible myofibroblast activity. MBNL1 deletion drove expansion of all quiescent cardiac fibroblast states and promoted mesenchymal stem cell characteristics while forced MBNL1 expression restricted state diversity by transitioning most fibroblasts to the most mature myofibroblast identity. These data suggest MBNL1 is a post-transcriptional switch controlling quiescent to myofibroblast transitions during cardiac wound healing.
Project description:We addressed here whether cardiomyocytes generated from CSC differentiation in vitro (iCMs) have a similar pattern of gene expression and undergo a similar transcriptional switch typical of cell cycle exit during adult cardiac myocyte maturation through the activation of known myo-miRs.