Zhao Yi-Fan, Xu Da-Chun, Zhu Guo-Fu, Zhu Meng-Yun, Tang Kai, Li Wei-Ming, Xu Ya-Wei
From the Department of Cardiology, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, P.R. China.
Hypertension. 2016 Jan;67(1):118-29. doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.115.06254. Epub 2015 Nov 16.
Growth arrest-specific 6 (GAS6) is a member of the vitamin K-dependent protein family that is involved in the regulation of the cardiovascular system, including vascular remodeling, homeostasis, and atherosclerosis. However, there is still no study that systemically elucidates the role of GAS6 in cardiac hypertrophy. Here, we found that GAS6 was upregulated in human dilated cardiomyopathic hearts, hypertrophic murine hearts, and angiotensin II-treated cardiomyocytes. Next, we examined the influence of GAS6 expression in response to a cardiac stress by inducing chronic pressure overload with aortic banding in wild-type and GAS6-knockout mice or cardiac-specific GAS6 overexpressing mice. Under basal conditions, the GAS6-knockout mice had normal left ventricular structure and function but after aortic banding, the mice demonstrated less hypertrophy, fibrosis, and contractile dysfunction when compared with wild-type mice. Conversely, cardiac-specific overexpression of GAS6 exacerbated aortic banding-induced cardiac hypertrophy, fibrosis, and dysfunction. Furthermore, we demonstrated that GAS6 activated the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1/2-extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 pathway during pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy, and the pharmacological mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1/2 inhibitor U0126 almost completely reversed GAS6 overexpression-induced cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis, resulting in improved cardiac function. Collectively, our data support the notion that GAS6 impairs ventricular adaptation to chronic pressure overload by activating mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1/2-extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 signaling. Our findings suggest that strategies to reduce GAS6 activity in cardiac tissue may be a novel approach to attenuate the development of congestive heart failure.
生长停滞特异性蛋白6(GAS6)是维生素K依赖性蛋白家族的成员,参与心血管系统的调节,包括血管重塑、内环境稳态和动脉粥样硬化。然而,目前尚无系统性阐明GAS6在心肌肥大中作用的研究。在此,我们发现GAS6在人类扩张型心肌病心脏、肥厚型小鼠心脏以及血管紧张素II处理的心肌细胞中上调。接下来,我们通过在野生型和GAS6基因敲除小鼠或心脏特异性GAS6过表达小鼠中进行主动脉缩窄诱导慢性压力超负荷,来研究GAS6表达对心脏应激的影响。在基础条件下,GAS6基因敲除小鼠的左心室结构和功能正常,但主动脉缩窄后,与野生型小鼠相比,这些小鼠的心肌肥大、纤维化和收缩功能障碍程度较轻。相反,心脏特异性过表达GAS6会加重主动脉缩窄诱导的心肌肥大、纤维化和功能障碍。此外,我们证明在压力超负荷诱导的心肌肥大过程中,GAS6激活了丝裂原活化蛋白激酶激酶1/2-细胞外信号调节激酶1/2通路,药理学丝裂原活化蛋白激酶激酶1/2抑制剂U0126几乎完全逆转了GAS6过表达诱导的心肌肥大和纤维化,从而改善了心脏功能。总体而言,我们的数据支持这样一种观点,即GAS6通过激活丝裂原活化蛋白激酶激酶1/2-细胞外信号调节激酶1/2信号传导损害心室对慢性压力超负荷的适应性。我们的研究结果表明,降低心脏组织中GAS6活性的策略可能是减轻充血性心力衰竭发展的一种新方法。