New insights into the roles of glucocorticoid signaling dysregulation in pathological cardiac hypertrophy

Exposure to inorganic arsenic (iAS) through drinking water is well-associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes, yet the mechanisms through which it induces these effects are not fully understood. Recent epidemiological findings highlight an association between iAS exposure and altered left ventricular geometry in both the presence and absence of hypertension. We therefore tested the hypothesis that iAS exposure has a bimodal impact on cardiac-intrinsic and hemodynamic mechanisms that together induce pathological remodeling of the myocardium. Adult male and female mice were exposed to an environmentally relevant dose of 615 μg/L NaAsO 2 for eight weeks. Males (n=9-10 mice/group) exhibited increased systolic blood pressure (115.1±3.0 vs. 106.0±2.3 mmHg, p=0.0350) via tail cuff photoplethysmography, left ventricular wall thickening (0.98±0.01 vs. 0.88±0.01 mm, p<0.0001) via transthoracic echocardiography, increased heart weight to tibia length (8.56±0.21 vs. 7.15±0.24 mg/mm; n=24 mice/group), and increased plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (47.85±12.0 vs. 15.14±3.73 pg/mL, p=0.0379) via enzyme immunoassay. Myocardial mRNA transcript levels (n=10 hearts/group) of Acta1 (1.36±0.18 vs. 0.73±0.11, p=0.0037), Myh7 (1.53±0.15 vs. 1.04±0.10, p=0.0138), and Nppa (2.40±0.29 vs. 1.02±0.07, p=0.0001) were increased, and Myh6 (0.92±0.17 vs. 1.14±0.23, p=0.0001) was decreased, evidencing pathological hypertrophy in the male heart. Female hearts, however, were largely protected at this eight-week timepoint as similar changes were not detected. Further investigation found that Rcan1 was upregulated (1.47±0.19 vs. 0.97±0.04, p=0.0161; n=10 hearts/group) in male hearts, suggesting that calcineurin-NFAT was activated. Interestingly, iAS was sufficient to activate NFAT (0.82±0.11 vs. 0.46±0.05, p=0.0214; n=8 wells/group) independent of blood pressure via luciferase assay. In conclusion, these results demonstrate for the first time that iAS may cause pathological cardiac hypertrophy not only by increasing hemodynamic load, but also by activating calcineurin-NFAT and inducing fetal gene expression in the male heart, thus providing novel mechanistic insight into the threat of iAS exposure to the cardiovascular system.

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Pygo1 regulates pathological cardiac hypertrophy via a β-catenin-dependent mechanism

AJP Heart and Circulatory Physiology ◽

10.1152/ajpheart.00538.2020 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Li Lin ◽

Wei Xu ◽

Yongqing Li ◽

Ping Zhu ◽

Wuzhou Yuan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cardiac Hypertrophy ◽

Cardiac Tissue ◽

Heart Weight ◽

Dependent Manner ◽

Tissue Specific ◽

Cardiac Tissues ◽

Pathological Cardiac Hypertrophy ◽

Interaction Factor ◽

Myocardial Remodelling

Wnt/β-catenin signalling plays a key role in pathological cardiac remodelling in adults. The identification of a tissue-specific Wnt/β-catenin interaction factor may realise a tissue-specific clinical targeting strategy. Drosophila Pygo codes for the core interaction factor of Wnt/β-catenin. Two Pygo homologs, Pygo1 and Pygo2, have been identified in mammals. Different from the ubiquitous expression profile of Pygo2, Pygo1is enriched in cardiac tissue. However, the role of Pygo1 in mammalian cardiac disease remains unelucidated. Here, we found that Pygo1 was upregulated in human cardiac tissues with pathological hypertrophy. Cardiac-specific overexpression of Pygo1 in mice spontaneously led to cardiac hypertrophy accompanied by declined cardiac function, increased heart weight/body weight and heart weight/tibial length ratios and increased cell size. The canonical β-catenin/T-cell transcription factor 4 complex was abundant in Pygo1-overexpressingtransgenic(Pygo1-TG) cardiac tissue,and the downstream genes of Wnt signaling, i.e., Axin2, Ephb3, and C-myc, were upregulated. A tail vein injection of β-catenin inhibitor effectively rescued the phenotype of cardiac failure and pathological myocardial remodelling in Pygo1-TG mice. Furthermore, in vivo downregulated pygo1 during cardiac hypertrophic condition antagonized agonist-induced cardiac hypertrophy. Therefore, our study is the first to present in vivo evidence demonstrating that Pygo1 regulates pathological cardiac hypertrophy in a canonical Wnt/β-catenin-dependent manner, which may provide new clues for a tissue-specific clinical treatment targeting this pathway.

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