心肌肥大的信号转导机制

编者按:细胞信号转导在当今生命科学领域占有极其重要的地位,自20世纪90年代以来,与细胞信号转导有关的研究已两度获诺贝尔医学奖,由此可见一斑.以此为契机,探索疾病的信号转导机制已成为当前国际上倍受瞩目的热点课题.心肌肥大和心力衰竭是大多数心血管疾病的严重或终末阶段,研究其细胞信号转导机制改变及其在发病学中的作用具有非常重要的意义.本专题重点介绍目前这一领域的研究进展,内容涉及心肌肥大和心力衰竭时细胞内信号转导通路的改变、心力衰竭时肾上腺素受体及其信号转导机制的改变等方面.尤其值得一提的是,本专题还包括了利用转基因动物模型研究心力衰竭时肾上腺素机制的内容,从中我们可以领略到这一领域的国外新研究成果,不仅会对肾上腺素机制在心力衰竭发病中的作用有更新的认识,而且对超表达或敲除基因动物模型在分子心脏病学中的应用有更进一步了解.本专题还涉及到心力衰竭时心肌细胞外基质的改变,提出心力衰竭时除有心肌细胞本身的结构或功能异常外,心肌间质组织尤其是心肌胶原亦发生异常改变,拓宽了人们对心力衰竭发生机制的认识.希望通过本专题的介绍,读者能对细胞信号转导机制在心肌肥大和心力衰竭发生机制中的作用有一个较为全面的认识,并期望推动这一领域基础研究的深入及指导临床防治.

运用分子遗传学来指导肥厚型心肌病的诊断与治疗

肥厚型心肌病(hypertrophy cardiomyopathy,HCM)是常染色体显性遗传疾病,其特征为在无明显诱因的(如高血压或瓣膜疾病)的心肌肥厚~([1]).在过去的50多年中,有关此疾病的文献报道已数以千计.早对HCM的描述只局限于该病的病理解剖及组织学特征~([2-3]).随后,因血液动力学改变而导致多种临床表现的机制得到了进一步的阐述,例如左心室流出道梗阻~([4])以及无症状患者的猝死~([5]).

Objective. In a model of rat cardiac hypertrophy, the changes in the distribution of ET-1 receptors in two subcellular fractions, the sarcolemma and the light vesicles during myocardial hypertrophy were studied. Methods. Cardiac hypertrophy was produced by placing a constricting clip around the suprarenal abdominal aorta of rats, and ET-1 receptor was assayed with radioactive analysis method. Results. It was found that plasma and ventricular ET-1 levels increased significantly on week 2 and week 4 of pressure overload. ET-1 binding studies showed that during myocardial hypertrophy, the maximum binding capacity (Bmax) was increased by 41％ (P<0.01) and 65％ (P< 0.01) in sarcolemma in H-2 week and H-4 week groups, but was decreased by 24％ (P< 0.01) and 21％ (P< 0.01) in light vesicles. The sum of Bmax of sarcolemmal and light vesicle fractions was increased by 33％ (P< 0.01) and 57％ (P< 0.01) in group H-2 week and H-4 week, respectively. ? Conclusion. ET-1 receptors in rat heart were externalized from light vesicles to sarcolemma, which may contribute to the development of myocardial hypertrophy.

机械牵张引起心肌肥厚的分子机制

随着医学的进步和治疗手段、预防意识的提高,心血管系统一些疾病(如心瓣膜病、心内膜炎、心肌梗死)所致的死亡率已逐步降低,但心肌肥厚及其终所导致的心力衰竭日益引起重视.

AIM:To investigate the regulation mechanism for insufficient KChIP 2 expression induces Ito,f downregulation and arrhythmogene-sis in cardiac hypertrophy .METHODS:Bidirectional manipulations of MG 53 expression were performed by adenoviral overexpression of MG53 or knockdown of MG53 with RNA interference in neonatal rat ventricular myocytes with or without PE stimulation .Ito,f was re-corded with patch clamp in whole-cell mode 48 h after adenoviral transfection .Then the WT or MG53 knockout ( MG53 -/-) mouse model of left ventricular hypertrophy induced by transverse aortic constriction ( TAC) were used to detect the susceptibility to ventricu-lar arrhythmia.RESULTS: Here, we show muscle-specific MG53 regulates KChIP2 expression and Ito,f densities, where they are downregulated in hearts from MG53 knockout mice and MG53 knockdown rat cardiomyocytes , but upregulated in MG53 overexpressed cells.MG53 expression is decreased in phenylephrine ( PE)-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and restoration of MG 53 rescues PE-induced downregulation of KChIP2 and Ito,f.Furthermore, MG53 is decreased in a mouse model of hypertrophy induced by transverse aortic constriction and ablation of MG 53 increases the susceptibility to ventricular arrhythmia by exaggerating Ito,f remodeling.CON-CLUSION:These findings establish MG53 as a novel regulator of Ito,f and its central role in arrhythmogenesis in hypertrophy .

AIM:To examine and compare the effects of several ARBs that are widely used in clinics , on the ACE-Ang II-AT1 receptor and the ACE2-Ang(1-7)-Mas axis during the development of cardiac remodeling after pressure overload .METHODS: All of the mice used in the study underwent transverse aortic constriction (TAC) or sham operation for 2 or 4 weeks.A solution of either ARBs or sa-line was administered through a stomach tube 3 days before the operation .Meanwhile , to eliminate the influence of Ang II , a recombi-nant adenovirus expressing small interfering RNAs targeting angiotensinogen ( Ad-ATG siRNA) was injected via the tail vein .The sur-gery was then performed and the drug was administered as mentioned above .Cardiac function and remodeling were evaluated by echo-cardiography , hemodynamic measurements and cardiac histology .Western blotting was used to determine the protein expression levels . Meanwhile , we performed similar experiments using ARBs with or without ATG siRNA in cardiomyocytes induced by mechanical stretch.RESULTS:Although all of the six ARBs , none of which repressed the elevation of left ventricular pressure after TAC , attenu-ated the development of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure in the wild-type mice, the degree of attenuation by Olmesartan , Candesar-tan and Losartan tended to be larger than that of the other three drugs tested .Additionally , the degree of downregulation of the ACE-Ang II-AT1 axis and upregulation of the ACE2-Ang(1-7)-Mas axis was higher in response to Olmesartan, Candesartan and Losartan administration in vivo and in vitro.Additionally, Olmesartan had a larger influence when administered long term .However, the expres-sion of ACE was not influenced by the administration of ARBs in vivo and in vitro.Moreover, in angiotensinogen-knockdown mice, TAC-induced cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure were inhibited by Olmesartan , Candesartan and Losartan but not by Telmisartan , Valsartan and Irbesartan administration .Furthermore , only Olmesartan and Candesartan could downregulate the ACE-Ang II-AT1 axis and upregulate the ACE2-Ang(1-7)-Mas axis in vitro.CONCLUSION: Olmesartan, Candesartan and Losartan could effectively in-hibit pressure overload-induced cardiac remodeling even when with knockdown of Ang II , possibly through upregulation of the expres-sion of the ACE2-Ang(1-7)-Mas axis and downregulation of the expression of the ACE-Ang II-AT1 axis.In contrast, Telmisartan, Valsartan and Irbesartan only played a role in the presence of Ang II , and Losartan had no effect in the presence of Ang II in vitro.

AIM:MicroRNAs ( miRNAs) were recognized to play significant roles in cardiac hypertrophy .But, it remains unknown whether cyclin/Rb pathway is modulated by miRNAs during cardiac hypertrophy .This study investigates the potential roles of microRNA-1 (miR-1) and microRNA-16 (miR-16) in modulating cyclin/Rb pathway during cardiomyocyte hypertrophy .METHODS:An animal model of hypertrophy was established in a rat with abdominal aortic constriction (AAC).In addition, a cell model of hypertrophy was also achieved based on PE-promoted neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocyte .RESULTS:miR-1 and-16 expression were markedly de-creased in hypertrophic myocardium and hypertrophic cardiomyocytes in rats .Overexpression of miR-1 and -16 suppressed rat cardiac hypertrophy and hypertrophic phenotype of cultured cardiomyocytes .Expression of cyclins D1, D2 and E1, CDK6 and phosphorylated pRb was increased in hypertrophic myocardium and hypertrophic cardiomyocytes , but could be reversed by enforced expression of miR-1 and -16.CDK6 was validated to be modulated post-transcriptionally by miR-1, and cyclins D1, D2 and E1 were further validated to be modulated post-transcriptionally by miR-16.CONCLUSION: Attenuations of miR-1 and -16 provoke cardiomyocyte hypertrophy via derepressing the cyclins D1, D2, E1 and CDK6, and activating cyclin/Rb pathway.

AIM:Cytochrome P450 epoxygenase 2J2 and epoxyeicosatrienoic acids ( EETs) are known to protect against cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure, which involve activation of 5′-AMP-activated protein kinase ( AMPK) and Akt.Although the functional roles of AMPK and Akt are well established , the significance of crosstalk between them in the development of cardiac hypertrophy and anti -hy-pertrophy of CYP2J2 and EETs remains unclear .Here, we investigated whether CYP 2J2 and its metabolites EETs protected against cardiac hypertrophy by activating AMPKα2 and Akt1.Moreover, we tested whether EETs enhanced crosstalk between AMPKα2 and phosphorylated Akt1 ( p-Akt1), and stimulated the nuclear translocation of p-Akt1, to exert their anti-hypertrophic effects. METHODS:The recombinant rAAV9 vector was coupled to CYP2J2 and the rAAV9-CYP2J2 construct was injected into the caudal vein of AMPKα2-/-and littermate control mice .AMPKα2 -/-and littermate control mice that overexpressed CYP 2J2 in heart were treated with angiotensin II (Ang II) for 2 weeks.Hemodynamic and cardiac functions were also evaluated after 14 days of infusion with Ang II or saline.RESULTS:Interestingly, the overexpression of CYP2J2 suppressed cardiac hypertrophy , including decreased heart size, cross sectional area of cardiomyocytes , markers of cardiac hypertrophy [ brain natriuretic peptide ( BNP) ,β-myosin heavy chain (β-MHC) and skeletal muscle α-actin (ACTA1)] and increased levels of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) in the heart tissue and plasma of wild-type mice but not AMPKα2 -/-mice.Measurement of left ventricular ejection fraction and fractional shortening showed that CYP2J2 overexpression prevented Ang II-induced ventricular systolic dysfunction in mice .Moreover, an Ang II-induced reduction in cardiac function, demonstrated by decreased dp/dtmax and dp/dtmin, was prevented by overexpression of CYP2J2.Mechanistically, the CYP2J2 metabolites 11,12-EET activated AMPKα2 to induce the nuclear translocation of p-Akt1, which increased production of ANP and thereby inhibited the development of cardiac hypertrophy .Furthermore , by co-immunoprecipitation analysis , we found that full-length Akt1 and an Akt1 fragment containing amino acids 150-408, which constitute the protein kinase domain , but not other frag-ments of Akt1, bind to the AMPKγ1 subunit.AMPKα2β2γ1 and p-Akt1 interact through the direct binding of the AMPKγ1 subunit to the Akt1 protein kinase domain.This interaction was enhanced by 11,12-EET.CONCLUSION:Our studies reveal a novel mechanism in which CYP2J2 and EETs enhanced Akt1 nuclear translocation through interaction with AMPKα2β2γ1 and protect against cardiac hy-pertrophy and suggest that overexpression of CYP 2J2 might have clinical potential to suppress cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure .

血管紧张素系统基因多态性与心肌肥厚的关系

心肌肥厚是心血管疾病的独立危险因素,它不仅是疾病的后果,而且与冠心病、高血压、心衰、心肌病等心血管疾病密切相关[1].