Downregulated calmodulin expression contributes to endothelial cell impairment in diabetes.

Endothelial dysfunction, a central hallmark of cardiovascular pathogenesis in diabetes mellitus, is characterized by impaired endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and NO bioavailability. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here in this study, we aimed to identify the role of calmodulin (CaM) in diabetic eNOS dysfunction. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells and murine endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) treated with high glucose (HG) exhibited downregulated CaM mRNA/protein and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression with impeded eNOS phosphorylation and cell migration/tube formation. These perturbations were reduplicated in CALM1-knockdown cells but prevented in CALM1-overexpressing cells. EPCs from type 2 diabetes animals behaved similarly to HG-treated normal EPCs, which could be rescued by CALM1-gene transduction. Consistently, diabetic animals displayed impaired eNOS phosphorylation, endothelium-dependent dilation, and CaM expression in the aorta, as well as deficient physical interaction of CaM and eNOS in the gastrocnemius. Local CALM1 gene delivery into a diabetic mouse ischemic hindlimb improved the blunted limb blood perfusion and gastrocnemius angiogenesis, and foot injuries. Diabetic patients showed insufficient foot microvascular autoregulation, eNOS phosphorylation, and NO production with downregulated CaM expression in the arterial endothelium, and abnormal CALM1 transcription in genome-wide sequencing analysis. Therefore, our findings demonstrated that downregulated CaM expression is responsible for endothelium dysfunction and angiogenesis impairment in diabetes, and provided a novel mechanism and target to protect against diabetic endothelial injury.

Connexin 43 hyper-phosphorylation at serine 282 triggers apoptosis in rat cardiomyocytes via activation of mitochondrial apoptotic pathway.

Cx43 is the major connexin in ventricular gap junctions, and plays a pivotal role in control of electrical and metabolic communication among adjacent cardiomyocytes. We previously found that Cx43 dephosphorylation at serine 282 (pS282) caused cardiomyocyte apoptosis, which is involved in cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury. In this study we investigated whether Cx43-S282 hyper-phosphorylation could protect cardiomyocytes against apoptosis. Adenovirus carrying rat full length Cx43 gene (Cx43-wt) or a mutant gene at S282 substituted with aspartic acid (S282D) were transfected into neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs) or injected into rat ventricular wall. Rat abdominal aorta constriction model (AAC) was used to assess Cx43-S282 phosphorylation status. We showed that Cx43 phosphorylation at S282 was increased over 2-times compared to Cx43-wt cells at 24 h after transfection, while pS262 and pS368 were unaltered. S282D-transfected cells displayed enhanced gap junctional communication, and increased basal intracellular Ca2+ concentration and spontaneous Ca2+ transients compared to Cx43-wt cells. However, spontaneous apoptosis appeared in NRVMs transfected with S282D for 34 h. Rat ventricular myocardium transfected with S282D in vivo also exhibited apoptotic responses, including increased Bax/Bcl-xL ratio, cytochrome c release as well as caspase-3 and caspase-9 activities, while factor-associated suicide (Fas)/Fas-associated death domain expression and caspase-8 activity remained unaltered. In addition, AAC-induced hypertrophic ventricles had apoptotic injury with Cx43-S282 hyper-phosphorylation compared with Sham ventricles. In conclusion, Cx43 hyper-phosphorylation at S282, as dephosphorylation, also triggers cardiomyocyte apoptosis, but through activation of mitochondrial apoptosis pathway, providing a fine-tuned Cx43-S282 phosphorylation range required for the maintenance of cardiomyocyte function and survival.

HDAC inhibitor sodium butyrate augments the MEF2C enhancement of Nampt expression under hypoxia.

Nicotinamide phosphoribosyl transferase (Nampt) is the rate-limiting enzyme for the salvage biosynthesis of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). Although elevated level of Nampt expression has been observed in various cancers, the involvement of Nampt promoter regulation was not well understood. We have identified a cluster of MEF2 recognition sites upstream of the functional hypoxia response elements (HREs) within the human Nampt promoter, and demonstrated that the two MEF2 sites at -1272 and -1200 were functional to upregulate the promoter activity by luciferase reporter assays. The Nampt promoter was able to be activated cooperatively following hypoxic stimulation by CoCl2 treatment with associated MEF2C overexpression. During the investigation on MEF2C regulation of endogenous Nampt expression in HeLa cells, the most significant enhancement of Nampt expression observed was by overexpression of MEF2C in combination with sodium butyrate exposure. By chromatin immunoprecipitation with a MEF2C anti-body, we found that MEF2C indeed interacted with endogenous Nampt promoter. The requirement of HDAC inhibition for the MEF2C enhancement of Nampt transcription was verified by RNAi of HDAC. Our results were in support of reports indicating that MEF2 family transcription factors interacted with HDACs and regulated downstream gene expression at the epigenetic levels. Our study provided important evidence to demonstrate the sophisticated mechanism of endogenous Nampt promoter regulation, and therefore, will help to better understand the Nampt overexpression in cancer progression, especially in the context of MEF2C upregulation which frequently occurred in cancer development and drug resistance.

[Role of endothelin-1 and its receptors on hypertrophy or proliferation of cultured cardial cells].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of endothelin-1 and its receptors on hypertrophy or proliferation of cultured cardial cells. METHODS: Cardiomyocytes and cardiac fibroblasts were isolated by trypsin digestion method, DNA and protein synthesis were measured by 3H-dexyribonucleotidethymine (3H-TdR) and 3H-Leucine (3H-Leu) incorporation, while protein content was measured by Bradford method. Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) mRNA expression of cardiomyocyte was measured by reverse transcripted-polymerase chain reaction. Selective endothelin (ET) receptor subtype antagonists BQ123 and BQ788 were used to block ET(A) receptors (ET(A)R) and ET(B)R respectively and to observe the effects of the two receptors during cardiac hypertrophy. RESULTS: ET-1 significantly increased the 3H-TdR and 3H-Leu incorporation rate of cardiomyocytes and cardiac fibroblasts in a dose-dependent manner and increased protein content. Furthermore, ET-1 promoted the ANP mRNA expression of cardiomyocyte. ET(A)R antagonist remarkably blocked these effects, while ET(B)R antagonist had no obvious effect. CONCLUSIONS: ET-1 can induce the hypertrophy for cardiomyocytes and the proliferation for cardiac fibroblasts. These effects are mediated by ET(A)R.