Lorraine E. Chalifour

Expression of immediate early genes, GATA-4, and Nkx-2.5 in adrenergic-induced cardiac hypertrophy and during regression in adult mice.

Adrenoreceptor agonists induce a hypertrophic phenotype in vitro and in vivo. To investigate the molecular remodeling in chronic cardiac hypertrophy we infused adult male mice with vehicle, isoproterenol, phenylephrine or both agonists for 3, 7 or 14 days. All drugs increased cardiac mass. After minipump removal cardiac mass regressed to control levels within 7 days after PE and ISO treatment whereas ISO+PE treated hearts were incompletely regressed. ANF and β‐MHC, but not α‐MHC, expression were increased by agonists at all time points. GATA‐4, Nkx‐2.5, Egr‐1, c‐jun and c‐fos expression were increased after 3, 7 and 14 days of treatment. Expression was greatest after ISO+PE>>ISO>PE>vehicle infusion suggesting a synergistic effect of adrenoreceptor stimulation and indicating a greater effect of β‐ than α‐adrenergic action in vivo. After PE or ISO drug withdrawal the HW/BW was normal and Egr‐1, c‐jun, c‐fos and GATA‐4, but not Nkx2.5, expression dropped to control levels. HW/BW regression was incomplete after ISO+PE and elevated levels of Egr‐1, c‐jun and Nkx2.5 expression remained. A hydralazine‐mediated reduction in blood pressure had no effect on the agonist‐induced cardiac hypertrophy or gene expression. In conclusion, we found that continued agonist stimulation, and not blood pressure, is responsible for the maintained increase in gene expression. Further, we found the decrease in gene expression in the regression after drug withdrawal was gene specific.

Lifelong Exposure to Bisphenol A Alters Cardiac Structure/Function, Protein Expression, and DNA Methylation in Adult Mice

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an estrogenizing endocrine disruptor compound of concern. Our objective was to test whether lifelong BPA would impact cardiac structure/function, calcium homeostasis protein expression, and the DNA methylation of cardiac genes. We delivered 0.5 and 5.0 µg/kg/day BPA lifelong from gestation day 11 or 200 µg/kg/day from gestation day 11 to postnatal day 21 via the drinking water to C57bl/6n mice. BPA 5.0 males and females had increased body weight, body mass index, body surface area, and adiposity. Echocardiography identified concentric remodeling in all BPA-treated males. Systolic and diastolic cardiac functions were essentially similar, but lifelong BPA enhanced male and reduced female sex-specific differences in velocity of circumferential shortening and ascending aorta velocity time integral. Diastolic blood pressure was increased in all BPA females. The calcium homeostasis proteins sarcoendoplasmic reticulum ATPase 2a (SERCA2a), sodium calcium exchanger-1, phospholamban (PLB), phospho-PLB, and calsequestrin 2 are important for contraction and relaxation. Changes in their expression suggest increased calcium mobility in males and reduced calcium mobility in females supporting the cardiac function changes. DNA methyltransferase 3a expression was increased in all BPA males and BPA 0.5 females and reduced in BPA 200 females. Global DNA methylation was increased in BPA 0.5 males and reduced in BPA 0.5 females. BPA induced sex-specific altered DNA methylation in specific CpG pairs in the calsequestrin 2 CpG island. These results suggest that continual exposure to BPA impacts cardiac structure/function, protein expression, and epigenetic DNA methylation marks in males and females.

Differential effects of cysteamine on heat shock protein induction and cytoplasmic granulation in astrocytes and glioma cells

The sulfhydryl agent, cysteamine (CSH), promotes the accumulation of autofluorescent, peroxidase-positive cytoplasmic granules in cultured astroglia akin to those which naturally accumulate in astrocytes of the aging periventricular brain. Both in vitro and in situ, CSH rapidly induces various heat shock proteins (HSP) in astrocytes long before granulation occurs. In the present study, we determined that CSH treatment resulted in an increase in HSP 27, HSP 90 and heme oxygenase (HO-1) at both the protein and mRNA level. We also showed that C6 glioma cells, unlike primary astrocytes, constitutively express HSP 27, HSP 90 and HO-1 at low levels. Moreover, CSH is incapable of eliciting further HSP expression or inducing granulation in the glioma cells. Our results support the hypothesis that the biogenesis of redox-active astrocytic inclusions in CSH-treated glial cultures and in the aging periventricular brain is dependent on an antecedent cellular stress response.

Phosphorylation of Protein Phosphatase 1 by Cyclin-dependent Protein Kinase 5 during Nerve Growth Factor-induced PC12 Cell Differentiation

The transcription factor Egr-1 activates cyclin-dependent protein kinase 5 (Cdk5) during nerve growth factor (NGF)-induced differentiation of PC12 cells into neurons (Harada, T. Morooka, T., Ogawa, S., and Nishida, E. (2001) Nat. Cell Biol. 3, 453-459). The downstream target of Cdk5 in the Egr-1/Cdk5 pathway is not clear. In this study, we observed that phosphorylation of protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) on Thr320 is reduced in brain extracts from Egr-1-/- mice, indicating that a kinase downstream of Egr-1 phosphorylates PP1. In HEK 293 cells co-transfected with PP1 and Cdk5, Cdk5 phosphorylates PP1. In vitro, Cdk5 purified from bovine brain phosphorylates bacterially expressed recombinant PP1. In NGF-treated PC12 cells, inhibition of Cdk5 by olomoucine or silencing Cdk5 expression by small interfering RNA strategy, suppresses PP1 phosphorylation. Silencing Cdk5 expression by small interfering RNA also blocks NGF-induced neurite outgrowth. Overexpression of PP1 (wild type) promotes NGF-induced differentiation of PC12 cells, whereas that of PP1 (T320A) has no effect. Our data indicate that PP1 is a downstream target of the NGF/Egr-1/Cdk5 pathway during NGF-induced differentiation of PC12 cells and suggest that PP1 phosphorylation promotes neuronal differentiation.

BAK1 gene variation and abdominal aortic aneurysms

We sought to examine the role of genetics in the multifactorial disease, abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), by studying sequence variation in the BAK1 gene (BAK1) that codes for an apoptotic‐promoting protein, as chronic apoptosis activation has been linked to AAA development and progression. BAK1 abdominal aorta cDNA from AAA patients and nondiseased individuals were compared with each other, as well as to the BAK1 genomic sequence obtained from matching blood samples. We found specific BAK1 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) containing alleles in both aneurysmic (31 cases) and healthy aortic tissue (5 cases) without seeing them in the matching blood samples. These same BAK1 SNPs have been reported, although rarely (average frequency <0.06%), in reference BAK1 DNA sequences. Based on this and other similar observations, we propose a novel hypothesis postulating that multiple variants of genes may preexist in “minority” forms within specific nondiseased tissues and be selected for, when intra‐ and/or extracellular conditions change. Therefore, the fact that different BAK1 variants can exist in both diseased and nondiseased AA tissues compared to matching blood samples, together with the rare occurrence of these same SNPs in reference sequences, suggests that selection may be a significant factor in AAA ontogeny. Hum Mutat 30:1–5, 2009.

Sex hormone control of left ventricular structure/function: mechanistic insights using echocardiography, expression, and DNA methylation analyses in adult mice

Calcium flux into and out of the sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum is vitally important to cardiac function because the cycle of calcium entry and exit controls contraction and relaxation. Putative estrogen and androgen consensus binding sites near to a CpG island are present in the cardiac calsequestrin 2 (CSQ2) promoter. Cardiomyocytes express sex hormone receptors and respond to sex hormones. We hypothesized that sex hormones control CSQ2 expression in cardiomyocytes and so affect cardiac structure/function. Echocardiographic analysis of male and female C57bl6n mice identified thinner walled and lighter hearts in females and significant concentric remodeling after long-term gonadectomy. CSQ2 and sodium-calcium exchanger-1 (NCX1) expression was significantly increased in female compared with male hearts and decreased postovariectomy. NCX1, but not CSQ2, expression was increased postcastration. CSQ2 expression was reduced when H9c2 cells were cultured in hormone-deficient media; increased when estrogen receptor-α (ERα), estrogen receptor-β (ERβ), or androgen agonists were added; and increased in hearts from ERβ-deficient mice. CSQ2 expression was reduced in mice fed a diet low in the methyl donor folic acid and in cells treated with 5-azadeoxycytidine suggesting an involvement of DNA methylation. DNA methylation in CpG in the CSQ2 CpG island was significantly different in males and females and was additionally changed postgonadectomy. Expression of DNA methyltransferases 1, 3a, and 3b was unchanged. These studies strongly link sex hormone-directed changes in CSQ2 expression to DNA methylation with changed expression correlated with altered left ventricular structure and function.

Atorvastatin Modulates Matrix Metalloproteinase Expression, Activity, and Signaling in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms

Statins may reduce abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) progression. We sought to measure how atorvastatin (AT) treatment might modulate matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) expression and/or activity in human AAA. Tissue from human AAAs at surgical repair was obtained from patients who were either not on statins (NST, n = 19) or treated with AT (n = 19). Immunoblots measured expression and zymography measured activity. Expression of most proteins was greater in the central compared with distal AAA region. Matrix metalloproteinase 1, MMP2, MMP3, MMP9, Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase (TIMP2), TIMP3, TIMP4, or total Sma Mothers Against Decapentaplegia (SMAD2) expression did not differ with treatment. There was a trend toward reduced MMP8 and TIMP1 expression and MMP2 zymographic activity in the AT-treatment group. In contrast, AT-treated samples had significantly reduced MMP13 (P = .02), latent-transforming growth factor (TGF)-β (P = .02), and phospho-SMAD2 (P = .029) expression than NST-treated samples. We conclude that the AT-mediated decrease in MMP expression and activity reduces TGF-β signaling in the central region of human AAAs.

TAFII250, Egr-1, and D-type cyclin expression in mice and neonatal rat cardiomyocytes treated with doxorubicin

Differential display identified that gene fragment HA220 homologous to the transcriptional activator factor II 250 (TAFII250) gene, or CCG1, was increased in hypertrophied rodent heart. To determine whether TAFII250 gene expression is modified after cardiac damage, we measured TAFII250 expression in vivo in mouse hearts after injection of the cardiotoxic agent doxorubicin (DXR) and in vitro in DXR-treated isolated rat neonatal cardiomyocytes. In vivo atrial natriuretic factor (ANF), β-myosin heavy chain (β-MHC), Egr-1, and TAFII250 expression increased with dose and time after a single DXR injection, but only ANF and β-MHC expression were increased after multiple injections. After DXR treatment of neonatal cardiomyocytes we found decreased ANF, α-MHC, Egr-1, and TAFII250 expression. Expression of the TAFII250-regulated genes, the D-type cyclins, was increased after a single injection in adult mice and was decreased in DXR-treated cardiomyocytes. Thus expression of Erg-1, TAFII250, and the D-type cyclins is modulated after cardiotoxic damage in adult and neonatal heart.

Egr-1 negatively regulates calsequestrin expression and calcium dynamics in ventricular cells

AIMS The transcription factor early growth response-1 (Egr-1) is increased in models of cardiac pathology; however, it is unclear how Egr-1 impacts the heart. We sought to identify how Egr-1 regulates expression of proteins involved in cardiomyocyte calcium homeostasis. METHODS Protein expression was measured by immunoblotting in control cardiac differentiated H9c2 cells or in H9c2 cells overexpressing wild-type Egr-1 (Egr-1) or an Egr-1 (I293F) mutant. Microspectrofluorimetry of fura-2-loaded cells was used to study calcium dynamics. Chromatin immunoprecipitation with anti-Egr-1 antibody was used to identify Egr-1-associated DNA. RESULTS Calsequestrin (CSQ) expression was reduced in Egr-1- and profoundly reduced in I293F-expressing cells. Calreticulin, triadin, sarcoendoplasmic reticulum ATPase 2a, phospholamban, and phosphoserine 16-phospholamban expression was unaffected. Calcium release from CSQ-dependent ryanodine-sensitive stores was reduced in Egr-1 and absent in I293F-expressing cells. In contrast, calcium release from calreticulin-dependent inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate stores was unaffected. In vivo and in vitro chromatin immunoprecipitation demonstrated Egr-1 binding to the CSQ2 promoter. The Egr-1-binding region contains overlapping Egr-1, SP1, and nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT) sites and a CpG island. Reciprocal immunoprecipitation coupled to immunoblots indicated Egr-1:NFAT3 binding was present in all cells lines. Treatment with cyclosporin A, inhibition of DNA methylation using 5-azadeoxycytidine, or inhibition of protein acetylation using sodium butyrate reduced CSQ expression. CONCLUSION Our data suggest that Egr-1:DNA binding at the promoter, DNA methylation, and protein acetylation are important in CSQ repression. Moreover, we demonstrate that a reduction in CSQ protein is associated with abnormal calcium dynamics. We conclude that Egr-1 acts as a transcriptional repressor at the CSQ promoter, resulting in downregulation of CSQ, the major calcium storage protein that links excitation-contraction coupling in the cardiac sarcoendoplasmic reticulum.

Alendronate affects calcium dynamics in cardiomyocytes in vitro.

Therapy with bisphosphonates, including alendronate (ALN), is considered a safe and effective treatment for osteoporosis. However, recent studies have reported an unexpected increase in serious atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients treated with bisphosphonates. The mechanism that explains this side effect remains unknown. Since AF is associated with an altered sarcoendoplasmic reticulum calcium load, we studied how ALN affects cardiomyocyte calcium homeostasis and protein isoprenylation in vitro. Acute and long-term (48h) treatment of atrial and ventricular cardiomyocytes with ALN (10(-8)-10(-6)M) was performed. Changes in calcium dynamics were determined by both fluorescence measurement of cytosolic free Ca(2+) concentration and western blot analysis of calcium-regulating proteins. Finally, effect of ALN on protein farnesylation was also identified. In both atrial and ventricular cardiomyocytes, ALN treatment delayed and diminished calcium responses to caffeine. Only in atrial cells, long-term exposure to ALN-induced transitory calcium oscillations and led to the development of oscillatory component in calcium responses to caffeine. Changes in calcium dynamics were accompanied by changes in expression of proteins controlling sarcoendoplasmic reticulum calcium. In contrast, ALN minimally affected protein isoprenylation in these cells. In summary, treatment of atrial cardiomyocytes with ALN-induced abnormalities in calcium dynamics consistent with induction of a self-stimulatory, pacemaker-like behavior, which may contribute to the development of cardiac side effects associated with these drugs.