Discriminating aspects of global metabolism of neonatal cardiomyocytes from wild type and KO-CSRP3 rats using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of culture media samples.

Knockout of multifunction gene cysteine- and glycine-rich protein 3 (CSRP3) in cardiomyocytes (CMs) of mice leads to heart dilation, severely affecting its functions. In humans, CSRP3 mutations are associated with hypertrophic (HCM) and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). The absence of the CSRP3 expression produces unknown effects on in vitro neonatal CMs' metabolism. The metabolome changes in culture media conditioned by CSRP3 knockout (KO-CSRP3), and wild type (WT) neonatal cardiomyocytes were investigated under untreated or after metabolic challenging conditions produced by isoproterenol (ISO) stimulation, by in vitro high-resolution proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS)-based metabolomics. Metabolic differences between neonatal KO-CSRP3 and WT rats' CMs were identified. After 72 h of culture, ISO administration was associated with increased CMs' energy requirements and increased levels of threonine, alanine, and 3-hydroxybutyrate in both neonatal KO-CSRP3 and WT CMs conditioned media. When compared with KO-CSRP3, culture media derived from WT cells presented higher lactate concentrations either under basal or ISO-stimulated conditions. The higher activity of ketogenic biochemical pathways met the elevated energy requirements of the contractile cells. Both cells are considered phenotypically indistinguishable in the neonatal period of animal lives, but the observed metabolic stress responses of KO-CSRP3 and WT CMs to ISO were different. KO-CSRP3 CMs produced less lactate than WT CMs in both basal and stimulated conditions. Mainly, ISO-stimulated conditions produced evidence for lactate overload within KO-CSRP3 CMs, while WT CMs succeeded to manage the metabolic stress. Thus, 1H-MRS-based metabolomics was suitable to identify early inefficient energetic metabolism in neonatal KO-CSRP3 CMs. These results may reflect an apparent lower lactate transport and consumption, in association with protein catabolism.

Impaired vascular smooth muscle cell force-generating capacity and phenotypic deregulation in Marfan Syndrome mice.

Mechanisms whereby fibrillin-1 mutations determine thoracic aorta aneurysms/dissections (TAAD) in Marfan Syndrome (MFS) are unclear. Most aortic aneurysms evolve from mechanosignaling deregulation, converging to impaired vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) force-generating capacity accompanied by synthetic phenotype switch. However, little is known on VSMC mechanoresponses in MFS pathophysiology. Here, we investigated traction force-generating capacity in aortic VSMC cultured from 3-month old mg∆lpn MFS mice, together with morpho-functional and proteomic data. Cultured MFS-VSMC depicted marked phenotype changes vs. wild-type (WT) VSMC, with overexpressed cell proliferation markers but either lower (calponin-1) or higher (SM alpha-actin and SM22) differentiation marker expression. In parallel, the increased cell area and its complex non-fusiform shape suggested possible transition towards a mesenchymal-like phenotype, confirmed through several markers (e.g. N-cadherin, Slug). MFS-VSMC proteomic profile diverged from that of WT-VSMC particularly regarding lower expression of actin cytoskeleton-regulatory proteins. Accordingly, MFS-VSMC displayed lower traction force-generating capacity and impaired contractile moment at physiological substrate stiffness, and markedly attenuated traction force responses to enhanced substrate rigidity. Such impaired mechanoresponses correlated with decreased number, altered morphology and delocalization of focal adhesions, as well as disorganized actin stress fiber network vs. WT-VSMC. In VSMC cultured from 6-month-old mice, phenotype changes were attenuated and both WT-VSMC and MFS-VSMC generated less traction force, presumably involving VSMC aging, but without evident senescence. In summary, MFS-VSMC display impaired force-generating capacity accompanying a mesenchymal-like phenotype switch connected to impaired cytoskeleton/focal adhesion organization. Thus, MFS-associated TAAD involves mechanoresponse impairment common to other TAAD types, but through distinct mechanisms.