Stress-induced differential gene expression in cardiac tissue (original) (raw)

Adrenoceptors and adaptive mechanisms in the heart during stress

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2008

Several cardiovascular disorders have been related to alterations in beta-adrenoceptor (beta-AR) signaling at or beyond the receptor level. During the stress reaction, the sympathetic-adrenal medullary system and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal cortex axis are activated, causing beta-AR overstimulation and remodeling of the beta(1)/beta(2)/beta(3)-AR ratio in cardiomyocytes. In a model of foot-shock stress, we described decreased beta(1)-AR signaling occurring simultaneously with increased beta(2)-AR signaling, whereas the response to the nonconventional agonist, CGP12177, was not altered. These alterations may play an adaptive role to the increased sympathetic drive to the heart, protecting the cardiac tissue from the cardiotoxic effects mediated by beta(1)-ARs overstimulation without altering cardiac output, since this would be sustained by the beta(2)-AR, which would also protect myocytes from apoptosis. Moreover, the selective enhancement of the beta(2)-AR population might he...

Regulation of Catecholamine-Synthesising Enzymes and ß-Adrenoceptors Gene Expression in Ventricles of Stressed Rats

Physiological Research

Stress exposure activates the sympathoneural system, resulting in catecholamine release. Chronic stress is associated with development of numerous disorders, including cardiovascular diseases. Here we investigated the expression of mRNAs for catecholamine biosynthetic enzymes tyrosine-hydroxylase, dopamine-ß-hydroxylase and phenylethanolamine N-methyl-transferase, and for ß1- and ß2-adrenoceptors in the right and left ventricles of rats exposed to chronic unpredictable mild stress. The tyrosine-hydroxylase and dopamine-ß-hydroxylase mRNA levels were not affected by stress, whereas the phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase mRNA levels significantly increased in both right and left ventricles. No changes in ß1–adrenoceptor mRNA levels in either right or left ventricles were observed. At the same time, stress produced a significant increase of β2-adrenoceptor mRNA levels in left ventricles. These results suggest that elevated expression of phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase in bot...

Genetic expression profiles during physiological and pathological cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure in rats

Physiological Genomics, 2004

Cardiac hypertrophy is a complex and nonhomogenous response to various stimuli. In this study, we used high-density oligonucleotide microarray to examine gene expression profiles during physiological hypertrophy, pathological hypertrophy, and heart failure in Dahl salt-sensitive rats. There were changes in 404/3,160 and 874/3,160 genes between physiological and pathological hypertrophy and the transition from hypertrophy to heart failure, respectively. There were increases in stress response genes (e.g., heat shock proteins) and inflammation-related genes (e.g., pancreatitis-associated protein and arachidonate 12-lipoxygenase) in pathological processes but not in physiological hypertrophy. Furthermore, atrial natriuretic factor and brain natriuretic protein showed distinctive changes that are very specific to different conditions. In addition, we used a resampling-based gene score-calculating method to define significantly altered gene clusters, based on Gene Ontology classification...

Exposure to Stress Alters Cardiac Gene Expression and Exacerbates Myocardial Ischemic Injury in the Female Murine Heart

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Mental stress is a risk factor for myocardial infarction in women. The central hypothesis of this study is that restraint stress induces sex-specific changes in gene expression in the heart, which leads to an intensified response to ischemia/reperfusion injury due to the development of a pro-oxidative environment in female hearts. We challenged male and female C57BL/6 mice in a restraint stress model to mimic the effects of mental stress. Exposure to restraint stress led to sex differences in the expression of genes involved in cardiac hypertrophy, inflammation, and iron-dependent cell death (ferroptosis). Among those genes, we identified tumor protein p53 and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (p21), which have established controversial roles in ferroptosis. The exacerbated response to I/R injury in restraint-stressed females correlated with downregulation of p53 and nuclear factor erythroid 2–related factor 2 (Nrf2, a master regulator of the antioxidant response system-ARE). S-f...

Regulation of atrial catecholamine enzymes and adrenoceptor gene expression after chronic stress

Acta Physiologica Hungarica, 2011

Chronic stress is a risk factor for the development of numerous psychopathological conditions in humans including depression. Changes in gene expression of tyrosine-hydroxylase (TH), dopamine-β-hydroxylase (DBH) phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PNMT), ß 1-, ß 2-and ß 3-adrenoceptors in right and left rat atria upon chronic unpredictable mild stress (CMS) were investigated. CMS decreased TH and DBH gene expression levels both in right and left atria and increased PNMT mRNA in left atria. No changes in mRNA levels of ß 1-and ß 2adrenoceptors were recorded, whereas ß 3-adrenoreceptor mRNA level was significantly elevated in right atria of CMS rats. At the same time, CMS produced a significant increase of β 1-and β 2-adrenoreceptor mRNA levels in left atria, but did not affect β 3-adrenoceptor mRNA level. The results presented here suggest that stress-induced depression expressed differential effects on catecholamine biosynthetic enzymes and ß-adrenoceptors at molecular level in right and left atria of adult rat males. Elevated gene expression of PNMT in left atria of rats exposed to CMS can lead to altered physiological esponse and may play a role in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular function.

Molecular evidence of stress-induced acute heart injury in a mouse model simulating posttraumatic stress disorder

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2014

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common condition induced by life-threatening stress, such as that experienced by soldiers under battlefield conditions. Other than the commonly recognized behavioral and psychological dysfunction, epidemiological studies have also revealed that PTSD patients have a higher risk of other diseases, such as cardiovascular disorders. Using a PTSD mouse model, we investigated the longitudinal transcriptomic changes in heart tissues after the exposure to stress through intimidation. Our results revealed acute heart injury associated with the traumatic experience, reflecting the underlying biological injury processes of the immune response, extracellular matrix remodeling, epithelial-to-mesenchymal cell transitions, and cell proliferation. Whether this type of injury has any longterm effects on heart function is yet to be determined. The differing responses to stress leading to acute heart injury in different inbred strains of mice also suggest that this response has a genetic as well as an environmental component. Accordingly, the results from this study suggest a molecular basis for the observed higher risk of cardiovascular disorders in PTSD patients, which raises the likelihood of cardiac dysfunction induced by long-term stress exposures.

Signaling pathways mediating cardiac myocyte gene expression in physiological and stress responses

Journal of Cellular Physiology, 2007

The contractile cells in the heart (the cardiac myocytes) are terminally differentiated. In response to pathophysiological stresses, cardiac myocytes undergo hypertrophic growth or apoptosis, responses associated with the development of cardiac pathologies. There has been much effort expended in gaining an understanding of the stimuli which promote these responses, and in identifying the intracellular signaling pathways which are activated and potentially involved. These signaling pathways presumably modulate gene and protein expression to elicit the end-stage response. For the regulation of gene expression, the signal may traverse the cytoplasm to modulate nuclear-localized transcription factors as occurs with the mitogen-activated protein kinase or protein kinase B/Akt cascades. Alternatively, the signal may promote translocation of transcription factors from the cytoplasm to the nucleus as is seen with the calcineurin/NFAT and JAK/STAT systems. We present an overview of the principal signaling pathways implicated in the regulation of gene expression in cardiac myocyte pathophysiology, and summarize the current understanding of these pathways, the transcription factors they regulate and the changes in gene expression associated with the development of cardiac pathologies. Finally, we discuss how intracellular signaling and gene expression may be integrated to elicit the overall change in cellular phenotype. J. Cell. Physiol. 212: 311–322, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Gene Network and Proteomic Analyses of Cardiac Responses to Pathological and Physiological Stress

Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, 2013

Background— The molecular mechanisms underlying similarities and differences between physiological and pathological left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) are of intense interest. Most previous work involved targeted analysis of individual signaling pathways or screening of transcriptomic profiles. We developed a network biology approach using genomic and proteomic data to study the molecular patterns that distinguish pathological and physiological LVH. Methods and Results— A network-based analysis using graph theory methods was undertaken on 127 genome-wide expression arrays of in vivo murine LVH. This revealed phenotype-specific pathological and physiological gene coexpression networks. Despite >1650 common genes in the 2 networks, network structure is significantly different. This is largely because of rewiring of genes that are differentially coexpressed in the 2 networks; this novel concept of differential wiring was further validated experimentally. Functional analysis of the r...