1. Developmental Biology
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The flow responsive transcription factor Klf2 is required for myocardial wall integrity by modulating Fgf signaling

  1. Seyed Javad Rasouli
  2. Mohamed El-Brolosy
  3. Ayele Taddese Tsedeke
  4. Anabela Bensimon-Brito
  5. Parisa Ghanbari
  6. Hans-Martin Maischein
  7. Carsten Kuenne
  8. Didier Y Stainier  Is a corresponding author
  1. Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Germany
Research Article
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Cite this article as: eLife 2018;7:e38889 doi: 10.7554/eLife.38889

Abstract

Complex interplay between cardiac tissues is crucial for their integrity. The flow responsive transcription factor KLF2, which is expressed in the endocardium, is vital for cardiovascular development but its exact role remains to be defined. To this end, we mutated both klf2 paralogues in zebrafish, and while single mutants exhibit no obvious phenotype, double mutants display a novel phenotype of cardiomyocyte extrusion towards the abluminal side. This extrusion requires cardiac contractility and correlates with the mislocalization of N-cadherin from the lateral to the apical side of cardiomyocytes. Transgenic rescue data show that klf2 expression in endothelium, but not myocardium, prevents this cardiomyocyte extrusion phenotype. Transcriptome analysis of klf2 mutant hearts reveals that Fgf signaling is affected, and accordingly, we find that inhibition of Fgf signaling in wild-type animals can lead to abluminal cardiomyocyte extrusion. These studies provide new insights into how Klf2 regulates cardiovascular development and specifically myocardial wall integrity.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Seyed Javad Rasouli

    Department of Developmental Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  2. Mohamed El-Brolosy

    Department of Developmental Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  3. Ayele Taddese Tsedeke

    Department of Developmental Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7493-2511

  4. Anabela Bensimon-Brito

    Department of Developmental Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  5. Parisa Ghanbari

    Department of Cardiac Development and Remodeling, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  6. Hans-Martin Maischein

    Department of Developmental Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  7. Carsten Kuenne

    Bioinformatics Core Unit, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  8. Didier Y Stainier

    Department of Developmental Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany
    For correspondence
    Didier.Stainier@mpi-bn.mpg.de
    Competing interests
    Didier Y Stainier, Senior editor, eLife.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0382-0026

Funding

The Leducq Foundation

  • Didier Y Stainier

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Open-access funding)

  • Didier Y Stainier

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: Animal experimentation: All animal experiments were done in accordance with institutional (MPG) and national ethical and animal welfare guidelines approved by the ethics committee for animal experiments at the Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt, Germany (permit numbers B2/1017, B2/1041, B2/1138 and B2/Anz. 1007).

Reviewing Editor

  1. Deborah Yelon, University of California, San Diego, United States

Publication history

  1. Received: June 4, 2018
  2. Accepted: December 24, 2018
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: December 28, 2018 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: January 11, 2019 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2018, Rasouli et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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