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Left ventricular remodeling, including the deposition of excess extracellular matrix, is key to the pathogenesis of heart failure. The stress-inducible transcriptional regulator p8 is increased in failing human hearts and is required both for agonist-stimulated cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and for cardiac fibroblasts matrix metalloprotease-9 (MMP9) induction. In the heart, upregulation of autophagy is an adaptive response to stress and plays a causative role in cardiomyopathies. We have recently shown that p8 ablation in cardiac cells upregulates autophagy and that, in vivo, loss of p8 results in a decrease of cardiac function. Here we investigated the effects of p8 genetic deletion in mediating adverse myocardial remodeling. Unstressed p8-/- mouse hearts manifested complex alterations in the expression of fibrosis markers. In addition, these mice displayed elevated autophagy and apoptosis compared with p8+/+ mice. Transverse aortic constriction (TAC) induced left ventricular p8 expression in p8+/+ mice. Pressure overload caused left ventricular remodeling in both genotypes, however, p8-/- mice showed less cardiac fibrosis induction. Consistent with this, although MMP9 induction was attenuated in the p8-/- mice, induction of MMP2 and MMP3 were strikingly upregulated while TIMP2 was downregulated. Left ventricular autophagy increased after TAC and was significantly higher in the p8-/- mice. Thus p8-deletion results in reduced collagen fibrosis after TAC, but in turn, is associated with a detrimental higher increase in autophagy. These findings suggest a role for p8 in regulating in vivo key signaling pathways involved in the pathogenesis of heart failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Left ventricular (LV) remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI) results from hypertrophy of myocytes and activation of fibroblasts induced, in part, by ligand stimulation of the ANG II type 1 receptor (AT1R). The purpose of the present study was to explore the specific role for activation of the AT1aR subtype in post-MI remodeling and whether gentler differences exist in the patterns of remodeling in wild-type and AT1aR knockout (KO) mice. AT1aR-KO mice and wild-type littermates underwent coronary ligation to induce MI or sham procedures; echocardiography and hemodynamic evaluation were performed 6 wk later, and LV tissue was harvested for infarct size determination, morphometric measurements, and gene expression analysis. Survival and infarct size were similar among all male and female wild-type and AT1aR-KO mice. Hemodynamic indexes were also similar except for lower systolic blood pressure in the AT1aR-KO mice compared with wild-type mice. Male and female wild-type and male AT1aR-KO mice developed similar increases in LV chamber size, LV mass corrected for body weight (LV/BW), and myocyte cross-sectional area (CSA). However, female AT1aR-KO mice demonstrated no increase in LV/BW and myocyte CSA post-MI compared with shams. Both male and female wild-type mice demonstrated higher atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) levels after MI, with female wild types being significantly greater than males. However, male and female AT1aR-KO mice developed no increase in ANP gene expression with MI despite an increase in LV mass and myocyte size in males. These data support that gender-specific patterns of LV and myocyte hypertrophy exist after MI in mice with a disrupted AT1aR gene, and suggest that myocyte hypertrophy post-MI in females relies, in part, on activation of the AT1aR. Further work is necessary to explore the potential mechanisms underlying these gender-based differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study on ventricular remodeling following myocardial infarction in a mouse. Importance of transgenic strains of mice as experimental species; Methods used in the study; Results of the study.

Cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and extracellular matrix remodeling, primarily mediated by inflammatory cytokine-stimulated cardiac fibroblasts, are critical cellular events in cardiac pathology. The molecular components governing these processes remain nebulous, and few genes have been linked to both hypertrophy and matrix remodeling. Here we show that p8, a small stress-inducible basic helix-loop-helix protein, is required for endothelin- and α-adrenergic agonist-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and for tumor necrosis factor-stimulated induction, in cardiac fibroblasts, of matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) 9 and 13--MMPs linked to general inflammation and to adverse ventricular remodeling in heart failure. In a stimulus-dependent manner, p8 associates with chromatin containing c-Jun and with the cardiomyocyte atrial natriuretic factor (anf) promoter and the cardiac fibroblast mmp9 and mmp13 promoters, established activator protein 1 effectors. p8 is also induced strongly in the failing human heart by a process reversed upon therapeutic intervention. Our results identify an unexpectedly broad involvement for p8 in key cellular events linked to cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and cardiac fibroblast MMP production, both of which occur in heart failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]