Advances in geroscience: impact on healthspan and chronic disease.

Population aging is unprecedented, without parallel in human history, and the 21st century will witness even more rapid aging than did the century just past. Improvements in public health and medicine are having a profound effect on population demographics worldwide. By 2017, there will be more people over the age of 65 than under age 5, and by 2050, two billion of the estimated nine billion people on Earth will be older than 60 (http://unfpa.org/ageingreport/). Although we can reasonably expect to live longer today than past generations did, the age-related disease burden we will have to confront has not changed. With the proportion of older people among the global population being now higher than at any time in history and still expanding, maintaining health into old age (or healthspan) has become a new and urgent frontier for modern medicine. Geroscience is a cross-disciplinary field focused on understanding the relationships between the processes of aging and age-related chronic diseases. On October 30-31, 2013, the trans-National Institutes of Health GeroScience Interest Group hosted a Summit to promote collaborations between the aging and chronic disease research communities with the goal of developing innovative strategies to improve healthspan and reduce the burden of chronic disease.

Epicardially derived fibroblasts preferentially contribute to the parietal leaflets of the atrioventricular valves in the murine heart.

The importance of the epicardium for myocardial and valvuloseptal development has been well established; perturbation of epicardial development results in cardiac abnormalities, including thinning of the ventricular myocardial wall and malformations of the atrioventricular valvuloseptal complex. To determine the spatiotemporal contribution of epicardially derived cells to the developing fibroblast population in the heart, we have used a mWt1/IRES/GFP-Cre mouse to trace the fate of EPDCs from embryonic day (ED)10 until birth. EPDCs begin to populate the compact ventricular myocardium around ED12. The migration of epicardially derived fibroblasts toward the interface between compact and trabecular myocardium is completed around ED14. Remarkably, epicardially derived fibroblasts do not migrate into the trabecular myocardium until after ED17. Migration of EPDCs into the atrioventricular cushion mesenchyme commences around ED12. As development progresses, the number of EPDCs increases significantly, specifically in the leaflets which derive from the lateral atrioventricular cushions. In these developing leaflets the epicardially derived fibroblasts eventually largely replace the endocardially derived cells. Importantly, the contribution of EPDCs to the leaflets derived from the major AV cushions is very limited. The differential contribution of EPDCs to the various leaflets of the atrioventricular valves provides a new paradigm in valve development and could lead to new insights into the pathogenesis of abnormalities that preferentially affect individual components of this region of the heart. The notion that there is a significant difference in the contribution of epicardially and endocardially derived cells to the individual leaflets of the atrioventricular valves has also important pragmatic consequences for the use of endocardial and epicardial cre-mouse models in studies of heart development.

Conservation genetics of a critically endangered limpet genus and rediscovery of an extinct species.

BACKGROUND: A third of all known freshwater mollusk extinctions worldwide have occurred within a single medium-sized American drainage. The Mobile River Basin (MRB) of Alabama, a global hotspot of temperate freshwater biodiversity, was intensively industrialized during the 20(th) century, driving 47 of its 139 endemic mollusk species to extinction. These include the ancylinid limpet Rhodacmea filosa, currently classified as extinct (IUCN Red List), a member of a critically endangered southeastern North American genus reduced to a single known extant population (of R. elatior) in the MRB. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We document here the tripling of known extant populations of this North American limpet genus with the rediscovery of enduring Rhodacmea filosa in a MRB tributary and of R. elatior in its type locality: the Green River, Kentucky, an Ohio River Basin (ORB) tributary. Rhodacmea species are diagnosed using untested conchological traits and we reassessed their systematic and conservation status across both basins using morphometric and genetic characters. Our data corroborated the taxonomic validity of Rhodacmea filosa and we inferred a within-MRB cladogenic origin from a common ancestor bearing the R. elatior shell phenotype. The geographically-isolated MRB and ORB R. elatior populations formed a cryptic species complex: although overlapping morphometrically, they exhibited a pronounced phylogenetic disjunction that greatly exceeded that of within-MRB R. elatior and R. filosa sister species. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Rhodacmea filosa, the type species of the genus, is not extinct. It persists in a Coosa River tributary and morphometric and phylogenetic analyses confirm its taxonomic validity. All three surviving populations of the genus Rhodacmea merit specific status. They collectively contain all known survivors of a phylogenetically highly distinctive North American endemic genus and therefore represent a concentrated fraction of continental freshwater gastropod biodiversity. We recommend the establishment of a proactive targeted conservation program that may include their captive propagation and reintroduction.

Differential Notch signaling in the epicardium is required for cardiac inflow development and coronary vessel morphogenesis.

RATIONALE: The proepicardium is a transient structure comprising epicardial progenitor cells located at the posterior limit of the embryonic cardiac inflow. A network of signals regulates proepicardial cell fate and defines myocardial and nonmyocardial domains at the venous pole of the heart. During cardiac development, epicardial-derived cells also contribute to coronary vessel morphogenesis. OBJECTIVE: To study Notch function during proepicardium development and coronary vessel formation in the mouse. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using in situ hybridization, RT-PCR, and immunohistochemistry, we find that Notch pathway elements are differentially activated throughout the proepicardial-epicardial-coronary transition. Analysis of RBPJk-targeted embryos indicates that Notch ablation causes ectopic procardiogenic signaling in the proepicardium that in turn promotes myocardial differentiation in adjacent mesodermal progenitors, resulting in a premature muscularization of the sinus venosus horns. Epicardium-specific Notch1 ablation using a Wt1-Cre driver line disrupts coronary artery differentiation, reduces myocardium wall thickness and myocyte proliferation, and reduces Raldh2 expression. Ectopic Notch1 activation disrupts epicardium development and causes thinning of ventricular walls. CONCLUSIONS: Epicardial Notch modulates cell differentiation in the proepicardium and adjacent pericardial mesoderm. Notch1 is later required for arterial endothelium commitment and differentiation and for vessel wall maturation during coronary vessel development and myocardium growth.

The sinus venosus progenitors separate and diversify from the first and second heart fields early in development.

AIMS: During development, the heart tube grows by differentiation of Isl1(+)/Nkx2-5(+) progenitors to the arterial and venous pole and dorsal mesocardium. However, after the establishment of the heart tube, Tbx18(+) progenitors were proposed to form the Tbx18(+)/Nkx2-5(-) sinus venosus and proepicardium. To elucidate the relationship between these contributions, we investigated the origin of the Tbx18(+) sinus venosus progenitor population in the cardiogenic mesoderm and its spatial and temporal relation to the second heart field during murine heart development. METHODS AND RESULTS: Explant culture revealed that the Tbx18(+) cell population has the potential to form Nkx2-5(-) sinus venosus myocardium. Three-dimensional reconstruction of expression patterns showed that during heart tube elongation, the Tbx18(+) progenitors remained spatially and temporally separate from the Isl1(+) second heart field, only overlapping with the Isl1(+) domain at the right lateral side of the inflow tract, where the sinus node developed. Consistently, genetic lineage analysis revealed that the Tbx18(+) descendants formed the sinus venosus myocardium, but did not contribute to the pulmonary vein myocardium that developed in the Isl1(+) second heart field. By means of DiI labelling and expression analysis, the origin of the sinus venosus progenitor population was traced to the lateral rim of splanchnic mesoderm that down-regulated Nkx2-5 expression approximately 2 days before its differentiation into sinus venosus myocardium. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that the cardiogenic mesoderm contains an additional progenitor subpopulation that contributes to the sinus venosus myocardium. After patterning of the cardiogenic mesoderm, this progenitor population remains spatially separated and genetically distinctive from the second heart field subpopulation.

Moorean tree snail survival revisited: a multi-island genealogical perspective.

BACKGROUND: The mass extirpation of the island of Moorea's endemic partulid tree snail fauna, following the deliberate introduction of the alien predator Euglandina rosea, represents one of the highest profile conservation crises of the past thirty years. All of the island's partulids were thought to be extirpated by 1987, with five species persisting in zoos, but intensive field surveys have recently detected a number of surviving wild populations. We report here a mitochondrial (mt) phylogenetic estimate of Moorean partulid wild and captive lineage survival calibrated with a reference museum collection that pre-dates the predator's introduction and that also includes a parallel dataset from the neighboring island of Tahiti. RESULTS: Although severe winnowing of Moorea's mt lineage diversity has occurred, seven of eight (six Partula; two Samoana) partulid tip clades remain extant. The extinct mt clade occurred predominantly in the P. suturalis species complex and it represented a major component of Moorea's endemic partulid treespace. Extant Moorean mt clades exhibited a complex spectrum of persistence on Moorea, in captivity, and (in the form of five phylogenetically distinct sister lineages) on Tahiti. Most notably, three Partula taxa, bearing two multi-island mt lineages, have survived decades of E. rosea predation on Moorea (P. taeniata) and in the valleys of Tahiti (P. hyalina and P. clara). Their differential persistence was correlated with intrinsic attributes, such as taxonomy and mt lineages, rather than with their respective within-island distribution patterns. CONCLUSION: Conservation efforts directed toward Moorean and Tahitian partulids have typically operated within a single island frame of reference, but our discovery of robust genealogical ties among survivors on both islands implies that a multi-island perspective is required. Understanding what genetic and/or ecological factors have enabled Partula taeniata, P. hyalina and P. clara to differentially survive long-term direct exposure to the predator may provide important clues toward developing a viable long term conservation plan for Society Island partulid tree snails.

Defective ciliogenesis, embryonic lethality and severe impairment of the Sonic Hedgehog pathway caused by inactivation of the mouse complex A intraflagellar transport gene Ift122/Wdr10, partially overlapping with the DNA repair gene Med1/Mbd4.

Primary cilia are assembled and maintained by evolutionarily conserved intraflagellar transport (IFT) proteins that are involved in the coordinated movement of macromolecular cargo from the basal body to the cilium tip and back. The IFT machinery is organized in two structural complexes named complex A and complex B. Recently, inactivation in the mouse germline of Ift genes belonging to complex B revealed a requirement of ciliogenesis, or proteins involved in ciliogenesis, for Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signaling in mammals. Here we report on a complex A mutant mouse, defective for the Ift122 gene. Ift122-null embryos show multiple developmental defects (exencephaly, situs viscerum inversus, delay in turning, hemorrhage and defects in limb development) that result in lethality. In the node, primary cilia were absent or malformed in homozygous mutant and heterozygous embryos, respectively. Impairment of the Shh pathway was apparent in both neural tube patterning (expansion of motoneurons and rostro-caudal level-dependent contraction or expansion of the dorso-lateral interneurons), and limb patterning (ectrosyndactyly). These phenotypes are distinct from both complex B IFT mutant embryos and embryos defective for the ciliary protein hennin/Arl13b, and suggest reduced levels of both Gli2/Gli3 activator and Gli3 repressor functions. We conclude that complex A and complex B factors play similar but distinct roles in ciliogenesis and Shh/Gli3 signaling.

High-content imaging characterization of cell cycle therapeutics through in vitro and in vivo subpopulation analysis.

Although the cycling of eukaryotic cells has long been a primary focus for cancer therapeutics, recent advances in imaging and data analysis allow even further definition of cellular events as they occur in individual cells and cellular subpopulations in response to treatment. High-content imaging (HCI) has been an effective tool to elucidate cellular responses to a variety of agents; however, these data were most frequently observed as averages of the entire captured population, unnecessarily decreasing the resolution of each assay. Here, we dissect the eukaryotic cell cycle into individual cellular subpopulations using HCI in conjunction with unsupervised K-means clustering. We generate distinct phenotypic fingerprints for each major cell cycle and mitotic compartment and use those fingerprints to screen a library of 310 commercially available chemotherapeutic agents. We determine that the cell cycle arrest phenotypes caused by these agents are similar to, although distinct from, those found in untreated cells and that these distinctions frequently suggest the mechanism of action. We then show via subpopulation analysis that these arrest phenotypes are similar in both mouse models and in culture. HCI analysis of cell cycle using data obtained from individual cells under a broad range of research conditions and grouped into cellular subpopulations represents a powerful method to discern both cellular events and treatment effects. In particular, this technique allows for a more accurate means of assessing compound selectivity and leads to more meaningful comparisons between so-called targeted therapeutics.

Abnormal conduction and morphology in the atrioventricular node of mice with atrioventricular canal targeted deletion of Alk3/Bmpr1a receptor.

BACKGROUND: The atrioventricular (AV) node is essential for the sequential excitation and optimized contraction of the adult multichambered heart; however, relatively little is known about its formation from the embryonic AV canal. A recent study demonstrated that signaling by Alk3, the type 1a receptor for bone morphogenetic proteins, in the myocardium of the AV canal was required for the development of both the AV valves and annulus fibrosus. To test the hypothesis that bone morphogenetic protein signaling also plays a role in AV node formation, we investigated conduction system function and AV node morphology in adult mice with conditional deletion of Alk3 in the AV canal. METHODS AND RESULTS: High-resolution optical mapping with correlative histological analysis of 28 mutant hearts revealed 4 basic phenotypic classes based on electrical activation patterns and volume-conducted ECGs. The frequency of AV node conduction and morphological abnormalities increased from no detectable anomalies (class I) to severe defects (class IV), which included the presence of bypass tracts, abnormal ventricular activation patterns, fibrosis of the AV node, and twin AV nodes. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings demonstrate that bone morphogenetic protein signaling is required in the myocardium of the AV canal for proper AV junction development, including the AV node.

Prehistoric inter-archipelago trading of Polynesian tree snails leaves a conservation legacy.

Inter-archipelago exchange networks were an important aspect of prehistoric Polynesian societies. We report here a novel genetic characterization of a prehistoric exchange network involving an endemic Pacific island tree snail, Partula hyalina. It occurs in the Society (Tahiti only), Austral and Southern Cook Islands. Our genetic data, based on museum, captive and wild-caught samples, establish Tahiti as the source island. The source lineage is polymorphic in shell coloration and contains a second nominal species, the dark-shelled Partula clara, in addition to the white-shelled P. hyalina. Prehistoric inter-island introductions were non-random: they involved white-shelled snails only and were exclusively inter-archipelago in scope. Partulid shells were commonly used in regional Polynesian jewellery, and we propose that the white-shelled P. hyalina, originally restricted to Tahiti, had aesthetic value throughout these archipelagoes. Demand within the Society Islands could be best met by trading dead shells, but a low rate of inter-archipelago exchange may have prompted the establishment of multiple founder populations in the Australs and Southern Cooks. The alien carnivorous land snail Euglandina rosea has recently devastated populations of all 61 endemic species of Society Island partulid snails. Southern Cooks and Australs P. hyalina now represent the only unscathed wild populations remaining of this once spectacular land snail radiation.

Tahitian tree snail mitochondrial clades survived recent mass extirpation.

Oceanic islands frequently support endemic faunal radiations that are highly vulnerable to introduced predators [1]. This vulnerability is epitomized by the rapid extinction in the wild of all but five of 61 described Society Islands partulid tree snails [2], following the deliberate introduction of an alien biological control agent: the carnivorous snail Euglandina rosea[3]. Tahiti's tree snail populations have been almost completely extirpated and three of the island's eight endemic Partula species are officially extinct, a fourth persisting only in captivity [2]. We report a molecular phylogenetic estimate of Tahitian Partula mitochondrial lineage survival calibrated with a 1970 reference museum collection that pre-dates the predator's 1974 introduction to the island [4]. Although severe winnowing of lineage diversity has occurred, none of the five primary Tahitian Partula clades present in the museum samples is extinct. Targeted conservation measures, especially of montane refuge populations, may yet preserve a representative sub-sample of Tahiti's endemic tree snail genetic diversity in the wild.

Identification and characterization of a novel Schwann and outflow tract endocardial cushion lineage-restricted periostin enhancer.

Periostin is a fasciclin-containing adhesive glycoprotein that facilitates the migration and differentiation of cells that have undergone epithelial-mesenchymal transformation during embryogenesis and in pathological conditions. Despite the importance of post-transformational differentiation as a general developmental mechanism, little is known how periostin's embryonic expression is regulated. To help resolve this deficiency, a 3.9-kb periostin proximal promoter was isolated and shown to drive tissue-specific expression in the neural crest-derived Schwann cell lineage and in a subpopulation of periostin-expressing cells in the cardiac outflow tract endocardial cushions. In order to identify the enhancer and associated DNA binding factor(s) responsible, in vitro promoter dissection was undertaken in a Schwannoma line. Ultimately a 304-bp(peri) enhancer was identified and shown to be capable of recapitulating 3.9 kb(peri-lacZ)in vivo spatiotemporal patterns. Further mutational and EMSA analysis helped identify a minimal 37-bp region that is bound by the YY1 transcription factor. The 37-bp enhancer was subsequently shown to be essential for in vivo 3.9 kb(peri-lacZ) promoter activity. Taken together, these studies identify an evolutionary-conserved YY1-binding 37-bp region within a 304-bp periostin core enhancer that is capable of regulating simultaneous novel tissue-specific periostin expression in the cardiac outflow-tract cushion mesenchyme and Schwann cell lineages.

Apoptosis in the developing mouse heart.

Apoptosis occurs at high frequency in the myocardium of the developing avian cardiac outflow tract (OFT). Up- or down-regulating apoptosis results in defects resembling human conotruncal heart anomalies. This finding suggested that regulated levels of apoptosis are critical for normal morphogenesis of the four-chambered heart. Recent evidence supports an important role for hypoxia of the OFT myocardium in regulating cell death and vasculogenesis. The purpose of this study was to determine whether apoptosis in the outflow tract myocardium occurs in the mouse heart during developmental stages comparable to the avian heart and to determine whether differential hypoxia is also present at this site in the murine heart. Apoptosis was detected using a fluorescent vital dye, Lysotracker Red (LTR), in the OFT myocardium of the mouse starting at embryonic day (E) 12.5, peaking at E13.5-14.5, and declining thereafter to low or background levels by E18.5. In addition, high levels of apoptosis were detected in other cardiac regions, including the apices of the ventricles and along the interventricular sulcus. Apoptosis in the myocardium was detected by double-labeling with LTR and cardiomyocyte markers. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridinetriphosphate nick end-labeling (TUNEL) and immunostaining for cleaved Caspase-3 were used to confirm the LTR results. At the peak of OFT apoptosis in the mouse, the OFT myocardium was relatively hypoxic, as indicated by specific and intense EF5 staining and HIF1alpha nuclear localization, and was surrounded by the developing vasculature as in the chicken embryo. These findings suggest that cardiomyocyte apoptosis is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism for normal morphogenesis of the outflow tract myocardium in avian and mammalian species.

E pluribus unum: A phylogenetic and phylogeographic reassessment of Laevapex (Pulmonata: Ancylidae), a North American genus of freshwater limpets.

The North American freshwater limpet genus Laevapex (Walker, 1903) is a ubiquitous inhabitant of lentic and slow-moving lotic habitats east of the Rocky Mountains, but uncertainty clouds its systematic affinities, the phylogenetic validity of its constituent nominal species, and its degree of genetic connectivity among drainages. We addressed these issues by sampling the genus throughout much of its collective range and constructing representative nuclear and mitochondrial (mt) gene trees, in addition to performing morphometric analyses of shell shape variation. Our results identify neotropical Gundlachia and South American Uncancylus as sister lineages for Laevapex and reveal a pronounced sub-familial dichotomy within the Ancylidae, separating these three New World genera from a Holarctic (Ferrissia (Ancylus, Rhodacmea)) sister clade. Five nominal taxa (L. fuscus, L. diaphanus, L. peninsulae, L. sp., and "F."arkansasensis), indistinguishable in our morphometric analyses, were polyphyletic in the mt gene trees, exhibited modest levels (< 3.9%) of genetic divergence in the primary (103 of 109 individuals) mt clade and, with one minor exception, they appeared fixed for a single nuclear ITS-2 genotype. Although complicated by the presence of rare, highly divergent mt lineages (of either introgressive or persistent ancestral polymorphic origin) in some populations, the molecular data were consistent with a taxonomic conclusion that these five nominal taxa represent a single polymorphic lineage of the type species L. fuscus. AMOVA analyses indicated that 56% of the observed mt variation could be attributed to among population differences, only two of 36 haplotypes were detected in more than one sampling location, and estimates of among-population mt gene flow were generally low at both regional and continental scales. Unrooted network analyses revealed a number of mt tip clades, one restricted to the southwestern part of the range, the remainder having overlapping distributions in eastern North America. All of the eastern tip clades occurred in the Mid-Atlantic region, and these samples displayed by far the highest levels of collective mt diversity. However, directional gene flow estimates indicated that this region has been a recipient (especially from Alabama populations), rather than a source of haplotypic diversity, implying that it likely represents a center of overlap, not a primary ice age refugium, for this limpet species.

Bone marrow cells transdifferentiate to cardiomyocytes when introduced into the embryonic heart.

Since rates of cardiomyocyte generation in the embryo are much higher than within the adult, we explored whether the embryonic heart would serve as useful experimental system for examining the myocardial potential of adult stem cells. Previously, we reported that the long-term culturing of adult mouse bone marrow produced a cell population that was both highly enriched for macrophages and cardiac competent. In this study, the myocardial potential of this cell population was analyzed in greater detail using the embryonic chick heart as recipient tissue. Experiments involving the co-incubation of labeled bone marrow cells with embryonic heart tissue showed that bone marrow (BM) cells incorporated into the myocardium and immunostained for myocyte proteins. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis demonstrated that the heart tissue induced bone marrow cells to express the differentiated cardiomyocyte marker alpha-cardiac myosin heavy chain. The cardiomyocyte conversion of the bone marrow cells was verified by harvesting donor cells from mice that were genetically labeled with a myocardial-specific beta-galactosidase reporter. Embryonic hearts exposed to the transgenic bone marrow in culture exhibited significant numbers of beta-galactosidase-positive cells, indicating the presence of bone marrow-derived cells that had converted to a myocardial phenotype. Furthermore, when transgenic mouse BM cells were injected into living chick embryos, donor cells incorporated into the developing heart and exhibited a myocardial phenotype. Immunofluorescence analysis demonstrated that donor BM cells exhibiting myocyte markers contained only nuclei from mouse cells, indicating that differentiation and not cell fusion was the predominant mechanism for the acquisition of a myocyte phenotype. These data confirm that adult mouse bone marrow contain cells with the ability to form cardiomyocytes. In addition, the predominance of the macrophage phenotype within the donor bone marrow cell population suggests that transdifferentiation of immune response cells may play a role in cellular regeneration in the adult.

Epicardial retinoid X receptor alpha is required for myocardial growth and coronary artery formation.

Vitamin A signals play critical roles during embryonic development. In particular, heart morphogenesis depends on vitamin A signals mediated by the retinoid X receptor alpha (RXRalpha), as the systemic mutation of this receptor results in thinning of the myocardium and embryonic lethality. However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms controlled by RXRalpha signaling in this process are unclear, because a myocardium-restricted RXRalpha mutation does not perturb heart morphogenesis. Here, we analyze a series of tissue-restricted mutations of the RXRalpha gene in the cardiac neural crest, endothelial, and epicardial lineages, and we show that RXRalpha signaling in the epicardium is required for proper cardiac morphogenesis. Moreover, we detect an additional phenotype of defective coronary arteriogenesis associated with RXRalpha deficiency and identify a retinoid-dependent Wnt signaling pathway that cooperates in epicardial epithelial-to-mesenchymal transformation.

The serosal mesothelium is a major source of smooth muscle cells of the gut vasculature.

Most internal organs are situated in a coelomic cavity and are covered by a mesothelium. During heart development, epicardial cells (a mesothelium) move to and over the heart, undergo epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and subsequently differentiate into endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells. This is thought to be a unique process in blood vessel formation. Still, structural and developmental similarities between the heart and gut led us to test the hypothesis that a conserved or related mechanism may regulate blood vessel development to the gut, which, similar to the heart, is housed in a coelomic cavity. By using a combination of molecular genetics, vital dye fate mapping, organ culture and immunohistochemistry, we demonstrate that the serosal mesothelium is the major source of vasculogenic cells in developing mouse gut. Our studies show that the gut is initially devoid of a mesothelium but that serosal mesothelial cells expressing the Wilm's tumor protein (Wt1) move to and over the gut. Subsequently, a subset of these cells undergoes EMT and migrates throughout the gut. Using Wt1-Cre genetic lineage marking of serosal cells and their progeny, we demonstrate that these cells differentiate to smooth muscle of all major blood vessels in the mesenteries and gut. Our data reveal a conserved mechanism in blood vessel formation to coelomic organs, and have major implications for our understanding of vertebrate organogenesis and vascular deficiencies of the gut.

The risk of posterior subcapsular cataracts in granulocyte donors.

BACKGROUND: Therapeutic use of adrenal corticosteroids is a risk factor for the development of posterior subcapsular cataract (PSC). Because corticosteroids are given to donors of apheresis granulocytes (PMNs) to improve yield, this study was performed to determine the prevalence of PSCs in PMN donors relative to a matched control group of apheresis platelet (PLT) donors. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: This study was a cross-sectional study stratified by age, sex, and lifetime apheresis experience at three sites. Individuals who had made at least five PMN donations preceded by corticosteroids were eligible. The presence of PSC was ascertained by grading digital retroillumination images of both lenses. A random subset of participants underwent clinical eye examinations by ophthalmologists masked as to study group. A logistic regression model was used to compute odds ratios (ORs). RESULTS: Granulocyte donors had given a mean of 13 donations (range, 5-39 donations) over a mean period of 8.5 years (range, 0.3-25.2 years). The mean corticosteroid exposure, in cortisol equivalents, was 2840 mg (range, 1067-9040 mg). Six of 89 PMN donors had photographic evidence of PSCs versus 4 of 89 controls. This difference was not significant (OR, 1.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.46-5.08). Five of 33 PMN donors and 3 of 30 PLT donors had evidence of PSC by clinical examination. This difference was also not significant (OR, 1.61; 95% CI, 0.35-7.39). CONCLUSION: This study does not support the hypothesis that corticosteroid stimulation of PMN donors is associated with an increased risk of developing a PSC.

Alk3/Bmpr1a receptor is required for development of the atrioventricular canal into valves and annulus fibrosus.

Endocardial cushions are precursors of mature atrioventricular (AV) valves. Their formation is induced by signaling molecules originating from the AV myocardium, including bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs). Here, we hypothesized that BMP signaling plays an important role in the AV myocardium during the maturation of AV valves from the cushions. To test our hypothesis, we used a unique Cre/lox system to target the deletion of a floxed Alk3 allele, the type IA receptor for BMPs, to cardiac myocytes of the AV canal (AVC). Lineage analysis indicated that cardiac myocytes of the AVC contributed to the tricuspid mural and posterior leaflets, the mitral septal leaflet, and the atrial border of the annulus fibrosus. When Alk3 was deleted in these cells, defects were seen in the same leaflets, ie, the tricuspid mural leaflet and mitral septal leaflet were longer, the tricuspid posterior leaflet was displaced and adherent to the ventricular wall, and the annulus fibrosus was disrupted resulting in ventricular preexcitation. The defects seen in mice with AVC-targeted deletion of Alk3 provide strong support for a role of Alk3 in human congenital heart diseases, such as Ebstein's anomaly. In conclusion, our mouse model demonstrated critical roles for Alk3 signaling in the AV myocardium during the development of AV valves and the annulus fibrosus.