Project description:Cardiac hypertrophy can lead to heart failure, and is induced either by physiological stimuli eg postnatal development, chronic exrcise training or pathological stimuli eg pressure or volume overload. This data set looks at microRNA profiles in mouse models to examine whether phosphoinositide 3-kinase (p110 alpha isoform) activity is critical for the maintenance of cardiac function and long term survival in a seeting of heart failure (myocardial infarction). The significance and expected outcome are to recognise genes involved in models of heart failure and attempt to examine underlying regulator pathways involved in possible cardica maintenance in the PI3K mouse model. The matching mRNA gene expression profile (GSE7487) is examined to look for mRNA and microRNA interactions. miRNA expression correlates directly with cardiac function. PI3K regulon ameliorates cardiac stress. Keywords: microRNA profiling, regulatory pathway discovery, genotype comparison
Project description:Cardiac hypertrophy can lead to heart failure, and is induced either by physiological stimuli eg postnatal development, chronic exercise training or pathological stimuli eg pressure or volume overload. Majority of new therapies for heart failure has mixed outcomes. A combined mouse model and oligo-array approach are used to examine whether phosphoinositide 3-kinase (p110-alpha isoform) activity is critical for maintenance of cardiac function and long-term survival in a setting of heart failure. The significance and expected outcome are to recognise genes involved in models of heart failure ie pathological- vs physiology-hypertrophy, and examine the molecular mechanisms responsible for such activity. Growth of the heart can be induced by physiological stimuli e.g., postnatal development, chronic exercise training, or pathological stimuli e.g., pressure or volume overload. Physiological hypertrophy (“good”) is characterised by a normal organisation of cardiac structure, and normal or enhanced cardiac function. In comparison, pathological hypertrophy (”bad”) is associated with fibrosis, cardiac dysfunction, and increased morbidity and mortality. The mechanistic process which allows the heart to enlarge in response to physiological stimuli while maintaining normal or enhanced function is of great clinical relevance because one potential therapeutic strategy is to inhibit the pathological growth process while augmenting the physiological growth process. One of the major process that regulate heart size is by phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K). Thus the end goal of this project is to determine whether the p110 alpha isoform of PI3K could be a potential tool for augmenting physiological growth and improving cardiac function of the failing diseased heart, and to examine the underlying mechanisms responsible. Keywords: Disease progression analysis
Project description:Skeletal muscle mass is an important determinant of whole-body glucose disposal. We here show that mice (M-PDK1KO mice) with skeletal muscle–specific deficiency of 3'-phosphoinositide–dependent kinase 1 (PDK1), a key component of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway, manifest a reduced skeletal muscle mass under the static condition as well as impairment of exercise load–induced muscle hypertrophy. Whereas exercise load-induced changes in gene expression were not affected, the phosphorylation of ribosomal protein S6 kinase (S6K) and S6 induced by exercise load was attenuated in skeletal muscle of M-PDK1KO mice, suggesting that PDK1 regulates muscle hypertrophy not through changes in gene expression but through stimulation of protein synthesis via the S6K-S6 axis.