Human Erbb2-induced Erk activity robustly stimulates cycling and functional remodeling of rat and human cardiomyocytes
Abstract
Multiple mitogenic pathways capable of promoting mammalian cardiomyocyte (CM) proliferation have been identified as potential candidates for functional heart repair following myocardial infarction. However, it is unclear whether the effects of these mitogens are species-specific and how they directly compare in the same cardiac setting. Here, we examined how CM-specific lentiviral expression of various candidate mitogens affects human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived CMs (hiPSC-CMs) and neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs) in vitro. In 2D-cultured CMs from both species, and in highly mature 3D-engineered cardiac tissues generated from NRVMs, a constitutively-active mutant form of the human gene Erbb2 (cahErbb2) was the most potent tested mitogen. Persistent expression of cahErbb2 induced CM proliferation, sarcomere loss, and remodeling of tissue structure and function, which were attenuated by small molecule inhibitors of Erk signaling. These results suggest transient activation of Erbb2/Erk axis in cardiomyocytes as a potential strategy for regenerative heart repair.
Data availability
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in the manuscript and supplemental source data file for all Figures.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institutes of Health (Research Project Cooperative Agreement,U01HL134764)
- Nenad Bursac
National Institutes of Health (Research Project Grant,R01HL132389)
- Nenad Bursac
National Institutes of Health (Training Grant,5T32HD040372)
- Nicholas Strash
- Sophia DeLuca
Foundation Leducq (Transatlantic Networks of Excellence Program,15CVD03)
- Nenad Bursac
Duke University (Translating Duke Health: Cardiovascular Health Initiative)
- Nenad Bursac
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: This study was performed in accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. All of the animals were handled according to approved institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) protocol (#A100-18-04) at Duke University.
Copyright
© 2021, Strash 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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Further reading
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- Cancer Biology
- Cell Biology
The most common primary malignancy of the liver, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is a heterogeneous tumor entity with high metastatic potential and complex pathophysiology. Increasing evidence suggests that tissue mechanics plays a critical role in tumor onset and progression. Here, we show that plectin, a major cytoskeletal crosslinker protein, plays a crucial role in mechanical homeostasis and mechanosensitive oncogenic signaling that drives hepatocarcinogenesis. Our expression analyses revealed elevated plectin levels in liver tumors, which correlated with poor prognosis for HCC patients. Using autochthonous and orthotopic mouse models we demonstrated that genetic and pharmacological inactivation of plectin potently suppressed the initiation and growth of HCC. Moreover, plectin targeting potently inhibited the invasion potential of human HCC cells and reduced their metastatic outgrowth in the lung. Proteomic and phosphoproteomic profiling linked plectin-dependent disruption of cytoskeletal networks to attenuation of oncogenic FAK, MAPK/Erk, and PI3K/Akt signatures. Importantly, by combining cell line-based and murine HCC models, we show that plectin inhibitor plecstatin-1 (PST) is well-tolerated and potently inhibits HCC progression. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that plectin-controlled cytoarchitecture is a key determinant of HCC development and suggests that pharmacologically induced disruption of mechanical homeostasis may represent a new therapeutic strategy for HCC treatment.
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- Cell Biology
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Background:
It has been reported that loss of PCBP2 led to increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and accelerated cell aging. Knockdown of PCBP2 in HCT116 cells leads to significant downregulation of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2). Here, we tried to elucidate the intrinsic factors and potential mechanisms of bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs) aging from the interactions among PCBP2, ROS, and FGF2.
Methods:
Unlabeled quantitative proteomics were performed to show differentially expressed proteins in the replicative senescent human bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (RS-hBMSCs). ROS and FGF2 were detected in the loss-and-gain cell function experiments of PCBP2. The functional recovery experiments were performed to verify whether PCBP2 regulates cell function through ROS/FGF2-dependent ways.
Results:
PCBP2 expression was significantly lower in P10-hBMSCs. Knocking down the expression of PCBP2 inhibited the proliferation while accentuated the apoptosis and cell arrest of RS-hBMSCs. PCBP2 silence could increase the production of ROS. On the contrary, overexpression of PCBP2 increased the viability of both P3-hBMSCs and P10-hBMSCs significantly. Meanwhile, overexpression of PCBP2 led to significantly reduced expression of FGF2. Overexpression of FGF2 significantly offset the effect of PCBP2 overexpression in P10-hBMSCs, leading to decreased cell proliferation, increased apoptosis, and reduced G0/G1 phase ratio of the cells.
Conclusions:
This study initially elucidates that PCBP2 as an intrinsic aging factor regulates the replicative senescence of hBMSCs through the ROS-FGF2 signaling axis.
Funding:
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82172474).