Affiliation:
1. From the Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD.
Abstract
Rationale:
One of the physiological mechanisms by which the heart adapts to a rise in blood pressure is by augmenting myocyte stretch-mediated intracellular calcium, with a subsequent increase in contractility. This slow force response was first described over a century ago and has long been considered compensatory, but its underlying mechanisms and link to chronic adaptations remain uncertain. Because levels of the matricellular protein thrombospondin-4 (TSP4) rapidly rise in hypertension and are elevated in cardiac stress overload and heart failure, we hypothesized that TSP4 is involved in this adaptive mechanism.
Objective:
To determine the mechano-transductive role that TSP4 plays in cardiac regulation to stress.
Methods and results:
In mice lacking TSP4 (
Tsp4
−/−
), hearts failed to acutely augment contractility or activate stretch-response pathways (ERK1/2 and Akt) on exposure to acute pressure overload. Sustained pressure overload rapidly led to greater chamber dilation, reduced function, and increased heart mass. Unlike controls,
Tsp4
−/−
cardiac trabeculae failed to enhance contractility and cellular calcium after a stretch. However, the contractility response was restored in
Tsp4
−/−
muscle incubated with recombinant TSP4. Isolated
Tsp4
−/−
myocytes responded normally to stretch, identifying a key role of matrix-myocyte interaction for TSP4 contractile modulation.
Conclusion:
These results identify TSP4 as myocyte-interstitial mechano-signaling molecule central to adaptive cardiac contractile responses to acute stress, which appears to play a crucial role in the transition to chronic cardiac dilatation and failure.
Publisher
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Subject
Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine,Physiology
Cited by
79 articles.
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