Department of Biotechnology
inStem (Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine)

Myocardin ablation in a cardiac-renal rat model.

Publication Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

April 10, 2019

Journal

Scientific reports

Volume/Issue

9/1

ISSN

2045-2322

Cardiorenal syndrome is defined by primary heart failure conditions influencing or leading to renal injury or dysfunction. Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a major co-existing form of heart failure (HF) with renal diseases. Myocardin (MYOCD), a cardiac-specific co-activator of serum response factor (SRF), is increased in DCM porcine and patient cardiac tissues and plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of DCM. Inhibiting the increased MYOCD has shown to be partially rescuing the DCM phenotype in porcine model. However, expression levels of MYOCD in the cardiac tissues of the cardiorenal syndromic patients and the effect of inhibiting MYOCD in a cardiorenal syndrome model remains to be explored. Here, we analyzed the expression levels of MYOCD in the DCM patients with and without renal diseases. We also explored, whether cardiac specific silencing of MYOCD expression could ameliorate the cardiac remodeling and improve cardiac function in a renal artery ligated rat model (RAL). We observed an increase in MYOCD levels in the endomyocardial biopsies of DCM patients associated with renal failure compared to DCM alone. Silencing of MYOCD in RAL rats by a cardiac homing peptide conjugated MYOCD siRNA resulted in attenuation of cardiac hypertrophy, fibrosis and restoration of the left ventricular functions. Our data suggest hyper-activation of MYOCD in the pathogenesis of the cardiorenal failure cases. Also, MYOCD silencing showed beneficial effects by rescuing cardiac hypertrophy, fibrosis, size and function in a cardiorenal rat model.

Alternate Journal

Sci Rep

PubMed ID

30971740

PubMed Central ID

PMC6458122

Authors

Anupam Mittal
Santanu Rana
Rajni Sharma
Akhilesh Kumar
Rishikesh Prasad
Satish K Raut
Sagartirtha Sarkar
Uma Nahar Saikia
Ajay Bahl
Perundurai S Dhandapany
Madhu Khullar

Keywords

Trans-Activators
Angiotensin II
Male
Cardio-Renal Syndrome
Disease Models, Animal
Cardiomyopathy, Dilated
Nuclear Proteins
Collagen Type I
Fibroblasts
Collagen Type I, alpha 1 Chain
Fibrosis
Heart Ventricles
Myocytes, Cardiac
Rats
Transforming Growth Factor beta
RNA Interference
Ventricular Function
RNA, Small Interfering
Animals