Gene expression and cellular changes in injured myocardium of .

is an invertebrate animal model system that is well characterized and has many advantages for the study of cardiovascular biology. The regulatory mechanisms of cardiac myocyte proliferation in are intriguing since regeneration of functional tissue has been demonstrated in other organs of in response to injury To identify genes that are differentially expressed in response to cardiac injury, microarray analysis was conducted on RNA from adult hearts with normal or damaged myocardium. After a 24- or 48-h recovery period, total RNA was isolated from damaged and control hearts. Initial results indicate significant changes in gene expression in hearts damaged by ligation in comparison to control hearts. Ligation injury shows differential expression of 223 genes as compared to control with limited false discovery (5.8%). Among these 223 genes, 117 have known human orthologs of which 68 were upregulated and 49 were downregulated. Notably, , insulin-like growth factor binding protein and Ras-related protein were significantly upregulated in injured hearts, whereas expression of a junctophilin ortholog was decreased. Histological analyses of injured myocardium were conducted in parallel to the microarray study which revealed thickened myocardium in injured hearts. Taken together, these studies will connect differences in gene expression to cellular changes in the myocardium of , which will help to promote further investigations into the regulatory mechanisms of cardiac myocyte proliferation across chordates.