RESUMO
UNLABELLED: Cardiac c-Kit+ cells have a modest cardiogenic potential that could limit their efficacy in heart disease treatment. The present study was designed to augment the cardiogenic potential of cardiac c-Kit+ cells through class I histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibition and evaluate their therapeutic potency in the chronic heart failure (CHF) animal model. Myocardial infarction (MI) was created by coronary artery occlusion in rats. c-Kit+ cells were treated with mocetinostat (MOCE), a specific class I HDAC inhibitor. At 3 weeks after MI, CHF animals were retrogradely infused with untreated (control) or MOCE-treated c-Kit+ cells (MOCE/c-Kit+ cells) and evaluated at 3 weeks after cell infusion. We found that class I HDAC inhibition in c-Kit+ cells elevated the level of acetylated histone H3 (AcH3) and increased AcH3 levels in the promoter regions of pluripotent and cardiac-specific genes. Epigenetic changes were accompanied by increased expression of cardiac-specific markers. Transplantation of CHF rats with either control or MOCE/c-Kit+ cells resulted in an improvement in cardiac function, retardation of CHF remodeling made evident by increased vascularization and scar size, and cardiomyocyte hypertrophy reduction. Compared with CHF infused with control cells, infusion of MOCE/c-Kit+ cells resulted in a further reduction in left ventricle end-diastolic pressure and total collagen and an increase in interleukin-6 expression. The low engraftment of infused cells suggests that paracrine effects might account for the beneficial effects of c-Kit+ cells in CHF. In conclusion, selective inhibition of class I HDACs induced expression of cardiac markers in c-Kit+ cells and partially augmented the efficacy of these cells for CHF repair. SIGNIFICANCE: The study has shown that selective class 1 histone deacetylase inhibition is sufficient to redirect c-Kit+ cells toward a cardiac fate. Epigenetically modified c-Kit+ cells improved contractile function and retarded remodeling of the congestive heart failure heart. This study provides new insights into the efficacy of cardiac c-Kit+ cells in the ischemic heart failure model.
Assuntos
Epigênese Genética , Insuficiência Cardíaca/terapia , Infarto do Miocárdio/terapia , Miócitos Cardíacos/transplante , Proteínas Proto-Oncogênicas c-kit/genética , Acetilação , Animais , Benzamidas/farmacologia , Biomarcadores/metabolismo , Diferenciação Celular , Células Cultivadas , Colágeno/genética , Colágeno/metabolismo , Modelos Animais de Doenças , Insuficiência Cardíaca/genética , Insuficiência Cardíaca/metabolismo , Insuficiência Cardíaca/fisiopatologia , Inibidores de Histona Desacetilases/farmacologia , Histonas/genética , Histonas/metabolismo , Interleucina-6/genética , Interleucina-6/metabolismo , Masculino , Infarto do Miocárdio/genética , Infarto do Miocárdio/metabolismo , Infarto do Miocárdio/fisiopatologia , Miócitos Cardíacos/citologia , Miócitos Cardíacos/metabolismo , Células-Tronco Pluripotentes/citologia , Células-Tronco Pluripotentes/metabolismo , Proteínas Proto-Oncogênicas c-kit/metabolismo , Pirimidinas/farmacologia , Ratos , Ratos Sprague-Dawley , Recuperação de Função Fisiológica , Técnicas de Cultura de Tecidos , Função Ventricular Esquerda , Remodelação VentricularRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Recent studies have linked histone deacetylases (HDAC) to remodeling of the heart and cardiac fibrosis in heart failure. However, the molecular mechanisms linking chromatin remodeling events with observed anti-fibrotic effects are unknown. Here, we investigated the molecular players involved in anti-fibrotic effects of HDAC inhibition in congestive heart failure (CHF) myocardium and cardiac fibroblasts in vivo. METHODS AND RESULTS: MI was created by coronary artery occlusion. Class I HDACs were inhibited in three-week post MI rats by intraperitoneal injection of Mocetinostat (20 mg/kg/day) for duration of three weeks. Cardiac function and heart tissue were analyzed at six week post-MI. CD90+ cardiac fibroblasts were isolated from ventricles through enzymatic digestion of heart. In vivo treatment of CHF animals with Mocetinostat reduced CHF-dependent up-regulation of HDAC1 and HDAC2 in CHF myocardium, improved cardiac function and decreased scar size and total collagen amount. Moreover, expression of pro-fibrotic markers, collagen-1, fibronectin and Connective Tissue Growth Factor (CTGF) were reduced in the left ventricle (LV) of Mocetinostat-treated CHF hearts. Cardiac fibroblasts isolated from Mocetinostat-treated CHF ventricles showed a decrease in expression of collagen I and III, fibronectin and Timp1. In addition, Mocetinostat attenuated CHF-induced elevation of IL-6 levels in CHF myocardium and cardiac fibroblasts. In parallel, levels of pSTAT3 were reduced via Mocetinostat in CHF myocardium. CONCLUSIONS: Anti-fibrotic effects of Mocetinostat in CHF are associated with the IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway. In addition, our study demonstrates in vivo regulation of cardiac fibroblasts via HDAC inhibition.
