Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Model Animals for Disease Study, Model Animal Research Centre and Medical School of Nanjing University, National Resource Centre for Mutant Mice, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
J Pathol. 2015 Apr;235(5):672-85. doi: 10.1002/path.4480. Epub 2015 Jan 7.
G protein-regulated cell function is crucial for cardiomyocytes, and any deregulation of its gene expression or protein modification can lead to pathological cardiac hypertrophy. Herein, we report that protein prenylation, a lipidic modification of G proteins that facilitates their association with the cell membrane, might control the process of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. We found that geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase (GGPPS), a key enzyme involved in protein prenylation, played a critical role in postnatal heart growth by regulating cardiomyocyte size. Cardiac-specific knockout of GGPPS in mice led to spontaneous cardiac hypertrophy, beginning from week 4, accompanied by the persistent enlargement of cardiomyocytes. This hypertrophic effect occurred by altered prenylation of G proteins. Evaluation of the prenylation, membrane association and hydrophobicity showed that Rheb was hyperactivated and increased mTORC1 signalling pathway after GGPPS deletion. Protein farnesylation or mTORC1 inhibition blocked GGPPS knockdown-induced mTORC1 activation and suppressed the larger neonatal rat ventricle myocyte size and cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in vivo, demonstrating a central role of the FPP-Rheb-mTORC1 axis for GGPPS deficiency-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. The sustained cardiomyocyte hypertrophy progressively provoked cardiac decompensation and dysfunction, ultimately causing heart failure and adult death. Importantly, GGPPS was down-regulated in the hypertrophic hearts of mice subjected to transverse aortic constriction (TAC) and in failing human hearts. Moreover, HPLC-MS/MS detection revealed that the myocardial farnesyl diphosphate (FPP):geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP) ratio was enhanced after pressure overload. Our observations conclude that the alteration of protein prenylation promotes cardiomyocyte hypertrophic growth, which acts as a potential cause for pathogenesis of heart failure and may provide a new molecular target for hypertrophic heart disease clinical therapy.
G 蛋白调节的细胞功能对心肌细胞至关重要,其基因表达或蛋白修饰的任何失调都可能导致病理性心肌肥厚。在此,我们报告蛋白异戊烯化,即 G 蛋白的脂质修饰,可促进其与细胞膜的结合,可能控制心肌细胞肥大的过程。我们发现,香叶基香叶基二磷酸合酶(GGPPS),一种参与蛋白异戊烯化的关键酶,通过调节心肌细胞大小在出生后心脏生长中起着关键作用。在小鼠中,心脏特异性敲除 GGPPS 导致自发性心肌肥厚,从第 4 周开始,伴有心肌细胞的持续增大。这种肥大效应是通过 G 蛋白的异戊烯化改变引起的。对异戊烯化、膜结合和疏水性的评估表明,Rheb 在 GGPPS 缺失后被过度激活并增加了 mTORC1 信号通路。蛋白法尼基化或 mTORC1 抑制阻断了 GGPPS 敲低诱导的 mTORC1 激活,并抑制了体内新生大鼠心室肌细胞的增大和心肌细胞肥大,表明 FPP-Rheb-mTORC1 轴在 GGPPS 缺乏诱导的心肌细胞肥大中起着核心作用。持续的心肌细胞肥大逐渐引发心脏失代偿和功能障碍,最终导致心力衰竭和成年死亡。重要的是,在接受主动脉缩窄(TAC)的小鼠的肥大心脏中和在衰竭的人类心脏中,GGPPS 下调。此外,HPLC-MS/MS 检测显示,在压力超负荷后,心肌法尼基二磷酸(FPP):香叶基香叶基二磷酸(GGPP)的比值增加。我们的观察结果表明,蛋白异戊烯化的改变促进了心肌细胞的肥大生长,这可能是心力衰竭发病机制的潜在原因,并为肥厚型心脏病的临床治疗提供了一个新的分子靶点。