ABSTRACT
Emerging evidence has indicated that BRCC 36-mediated K63-linked ubiquitination modification was involved in diverse cellular functions , including endocytosis , apoptosis and DNA damage repair .We previously showed that activation of cGMP/PKG pathway con-tributed to the binding of BRCC36 and the pro-fibrotic factor Smad3.The current study tested the hypothesis that BRCC 36 functions as a negative regulator of transforming growth factor-beta ( TGF-β)/Smad3 pathway and participates in cardiac remodeling .In isolated adult mouse cardiac fibroblasts , we have demonstrated that TGF-β1 treatment significantly increased the expression of BRCC 36.Over-expression BRCC36 suppressed TGF-β1-induced Smad3 phosphorylation, nuclear translocation, extracellular matrix molecular expres-sion and cell proliferation .On the contrary, silencing BRCC36 by transfection of adenovirus-carrying BRCC36 shRNA potentiated to enhance the pro-fibrotic effect of TGF-β.In vivo, under chronic pressure overload condition-induced by transverse aortic constriction , myocardial pro-survival protein Bcl-2 and Mcl-1 expression were significantly decreased and the pro-apoptosis protein Puma was in-creased.However, the cardiac-specific over-expression of BRCC36 significantly increased myocardial Bcl-2 and Mcl-1 and inhibited Puma expression .Interestingly , we also found that sustained pressure overload resulted in a significant myocardial DNA injury in wild type mice, which was characterized by the increase of γH2AX level.However, cardiac-specific BRCC36 over-expression significantly decreased the level of γH2AX in the pressure overloaded heart in the transgenic mice , while effectively enhanced myocardial RAD 51 expression, a marker of DNA damage repair.Furthermore, BRCC36 over-expression effectively attenuated TAC-induced cardiac fibro-sis and remodeling in the transgenic mice , compared with the wild type mice .Collectively , the results have suggested that BRCC 36 ef-fectively protected heart against chronic pressure overload-induced cardiac remodeling though antagonizing TGF-β/Smad3 pathway and enhancing myocardial DNA injury repair response .