Down-regulation of Akt/PKB in senescent cardiac fibroblasts impairs PDGF-induced cell proliferation.

OBJECTIVE: Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the Western World, especially in the elder population. One pathophysiological component of cardiovascular disease is myocardial fibrosis, primarily derived from cardiac fibroblasts. Here we investigated the regulation of proliferation of fibroblasts from hearts of adult rats by platelet derived growth factor AA (PDGF-AA). METHODS: Cardiac fibroblasts were isolated from adult Wistar rats. PDGF-induced cell proliferation was analysed by FACS. PDGF-receptor numbers were analysed by receptor binding assays. Using differential display, differentially expressed kinases were identified during ageing in vitro and confirmed by Northern and Western blotting. Transient overexpression of IRES-GFP constructs was used to analyse the role of the akt kinase on proliferation by FACS. RESULTS: During in vitro senescence/aging of primary fibroblasts, the growth response to PDGF-AA was greatly reduced without alterations in its receptor number or affinity and without changes in downstream signalling via the MAP-kinase pathway. By using a differential display strategy selective for protein kinases, we identified reduced expression of Akt-1 kinase (PKB-alpha) in senescent rat cardiac fibroblasts. These findings were supported by data showing reduced expression of Akt-1 in heart samples from old humans. Overexpression of activated Akt-1 almost completely reconstituted PDGF-AA dependent cell proliferation in aged fibroblasts. CONCLUSION: These results support an important role for Akt in senescence and regulation of cardiac fibroblast cell proliferation.

A physical model for a fibrous network and its application to the shear modulus and other data of the fibrin gel.

A physical model for a fibrous network is developed and used to calculate its shear modulus. The model is applied to the shear modulus data of the fibrin gel and compared with other data related to the fibrin gel to elucidate the physical origins for some of the interesting properties of the gel such as the concentration dependence of the shear modulus and the difference between fine and course gels.

Identification of fibrin oligomers in sonicated fibrin clots.

Clots of bovine fibrin, with both coarse and fine structure, and ligated to different extents by fibrinoligase, have been broken up by ultrasonic agitation and the sonicates have been examined by ultracentrifugal sedimentation. Sonication is followed by gross aggregation of the fragments unless guanidine hydrochloride is introduced (order of 1 M). In that case, sonicates of gamma-ligated fine clots contain two species whose sedimentation coefficients correspond to fibrin monomer and an oligomer with twice the monomer cross-section area and at least 20 monomer units, presumably with the structure of lateral dimerization with staggered overlapping. If the gamma ligation is incomplete, shorter oligomers are identified. The monomer and oligomer with degree of polymerization greater than 20 appear also in sonicates of coarse clots, but in smaller amounts, the principal product consisting of larger aggregates. The implications of these results with respect to metastability of the fine clot and the pattern of polymerization are discussed.

PDGF-AA, a potent mitogen for cardiac fibroblasts from adult rats.

The heart responds to increased haemodynamic load with growth of the ventricles. The rise in ventricle mass is due to increasing mass of the myocytes and proliferation of fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells. The accompanying adaptation and remodelling of the interstitium, e.g. production and composition of the extracellular matrix proteins, determine a physiological or pathophysiological hypertrophy. Fibroblasts play a critical role in this process as the producers of extracellular matrix proteins. So far the growth factors involved are not well defined, and therefore we investigated the effect of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) isoforms on cellular proliferation of fibroblasts from adult rat hearts. Unlike other cell types of the cardiovascular system (e.g. smooth muscle cells), PDGF-AA has an extraordinarily high stimulatory effect on cell growth of these fibroblasts. It induces cell division to nearly the same extent and with the same kinetics as PDGF-BB as shown by cell number and flow cytometry. Cardiac fibroblasts do not express an unusually high number of PDGF alpha-receptors, (15300 PDGF alpha-receptors. 24800 PDGF beta-receptors per cell) which could explain this effect. The alpha-receptors display a lower and shorter autophosphorylation after stimulation with PDGF in comparison to the beta-receptors. The activation of the MAP kinase pathway is not different after stimulation with both PDGF isoforms. Interestingly, quiescent cardiac fibroblasts contain a preactivated p70S6-kinase. The specific drug rapamycin not only inhibits the p70S6-kinase activation but also PDGF induced cell proliferation for more than 50%. Because the p70S6-kinase activation is implicated in growth regulation in this cell system, the preactivation of this kinase is discussed to be a possible explanation for the enhanced growth effect of PDGF-AA.

The apoptotic capability of coxsackievirus B3 is influenced by the efficient interaction between the capsid protein VP2 and the proapoptotic host protein Siva.

Infections with coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) are common causes of myocarditis in humans. One detail of CVB3-induced pathogenesis is apoptosis. The interaction between the capsid protein VP2 of the myocardial virus variant CVB3H3 and the proapoptotic host cell protein Siva has recently been observed. In order to characterize the interaction between both proteins more precisely, the binding activity of the CVB3H3 VP2 to Siva was compared to that of the mutant virus CVB3H310A1 VP2. We found that the asparagine at position 165 in VP2 is essential for a stable interaction with Siva influencing also the induction of apoptosis, viral spread, and inflammatory responses in vivo. Furthermore, the specific binding site of Siva to VP2 is located at amino acid positions 118-136. Together, these results show that the interaction between VP2 of CVB3H3 and Siva is a highly specific process involving distinct amino acids on both proteins that most likely influence the outcome of CVB3-caused disease.