Deletion of IKKß in activated fibroblasts promotes tumor progression in melanoma.

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are a major component of the tumor microenvironment and play critical roles in tumorigenesis. CAFs consists of multiple subpopulations, which have diverse functions. The detailed mechanism, including the role of NF-κB, a critical transcription factor for inflammation and cell survival, in CAFs has not been adequately explored. In this study, we examined the roles of IKKß, a key kinase for NF-κB activation, in activated CAFs by using mice (KO mice) with deletion of IKKß in activated fibroblasts (aFbs). We found that melanoma cells implanted in KO mice showed significantly more growth than those implanted in control mice. To exclude the effects of deletion of IKKß in cells other than aFbs, we implanted a mixture of melanoma cells and IKKß-deleted aFbs in wild-type mice and observed that the mixture showed greater growth than a mixture of melanoma cells and normal aFbs. In exploring the mechanisms, we found that conditioned medium from IKKß-deleted aFbs promotes the proliferation of melanoma cells, and the expression of growth arrest-specific 6 (GAS6) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), which are major tumor-promoting factors, was upregulated in IKKß-deleted aFbs. These results indicated the tumor-suppressing function of IKKß in activated CAFs.

Effects of constitutively active IKKß on cardiac development.

NF-κB is a major transcription factor regulating cell survival, organ development and inflammation, but its role in cardiac development has been inadequately explored. To examine this function, we generated mice in which IKKß, an essential kinase for NF-κB activation, was constitutively activated in embryonic cardiomyocytes. For this purpose, we used smooth muscle-22α (SM22α)-Cre mice, which are frequently used for gene recombination in embryonic cardiomyocytes. Embryonic hearts of SM22αCre-CA (constitutively active) IKKßflox/flox mice revealed remarkably thin, spongy and hypoplastic myocardium. In exploring the mechanism, we found that the expression of bone morphogenetic protein 10 (BMP10) and T-box transcription factor 20 (Tbx20), major regulators of cardiac development, was significantly downregulated and upregulated, respectively, in the SM22αCre-CAIKKßflox/flox mice. We also generated NK2 homeobox 5 (Nkx2.5) Cre-CAIKKßflox/wt mice since Nkx2.5 is also expressed in embryonic cardiomyocytes and confirmed that the changes in these genes were also observed. These results implicated that the activation of NF-κB affects cardiac development.

Overview of the 84th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society　- Change Practice!

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 84thAnnual Meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society (JCS) was held in a web-based format for the first time in its history as "The Week for JCS 2020" from Monday, July 27 to Sunday, August 2, 2020. All sessions, including general abstracts, were streamed live or on-demand. The main theme of the meeting was "Change Practice!" and the aim was to organize the latest findings in the field of cardiovascular medicine and discuss how to change practice. The total number of registered attendees was over 16,800, far exceeding our expectations, and many of the sessions were viewed by far more people than at conventional face-to-face scientific meetings. At this conference, the power of online information dissemination was fully demonstrated, and the evolution of online academic meetings will be a direction that cannot be reversed in the future. The meeting was completed with great success, and we express our heartfelt gratitude to all affiliates for their enormous amount of work, cooperation, and support.

Aspirin augments the expression of Adenomatous Polyposis Coli protein by suppression of IKKß.

Aspirin has been widely used as analgesic, antipyretic and anti-inflammatory medicine for long. In addition to these traditional effects, clinical studies suggest that aspirin can protect against cancer, but its mechanism has not been explored. To unveil it, we identified the proteins up- or down-regulated after incubation with aspirin by using proteomics analysis with Nano-flow LC/MALDI-TOF system. Interestingly, the analysis identified the protein of Adenomatous Polyposis Coli (APC) as one of the most up-regulated protein. APC regulates cell proliferation or angiogenesis, and is widely known as a tumor-suppressing gene which can cause colorectal cancer when it is mutated. Western blots confirmed this result, and real-time PCR indicated it is transcriptionally regulated. We further tried to elucidate the molecular mechanism with focusing on IKKß. IKKß is the essential kinase in activation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), major transcriptional factors that regulate genes responsible for inflammation or immune response. Previous reports indicated that aspirin specifically inhibits IKKß activity, and constitutively active form of IKKß accelerates APC loss. We found that aspirin suppressed the expression of IKKß, and the deletion of IKKß by siRNA increases the expression of APC in HEK294 cells. Finally, we observed similar effects of aspirin in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Taken together, these results reveal that aspirin up-regulates the expression of APC via the suppression of IKKß. This can be a mechanism how aspirin prevents cancer at least in part, and a novel link between inflammatory NF-κB signaling and cancer.

Sustained activation of NF-κB through constitutively active IKKß leads to senescence bypass in murine dermal fibroblasts.

Although the transcription factor nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) plays a central role in the regulation of senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) acquisition, our understanding of the involvement of NF-κB in the induction of cellular senescence is limited. Here, we show that activation of the canonical NF-κB pathway suppresses senescence in murine dermal fibroblasts. IκB kinase ß (IKKß)-depleted dermal fibroblasts showed ineffective NF-κB activation and underwent senescence more rapidly than control cells when cultured under 20% oxygen conditions, as indicated by senescence-associated ß-galactosidase (SA-ß-gal) staining and p16INK4a mRNA levels. Conversely, the expression of constitutively active IKKß (IKKß-CA) was sufficient to drive senescence bypass. Notably, the expression of a degradation-resistant form of inhibitor of κB (IκB), which inhibits NF-κB nuclear translocation, abolished senescence bypass, suggesting that the inhibitory effect of IKKß-CA on senescence is largely mediated by NF-κB. We also found that IKKß-CA expression suppressed the derepression of INK4/Arf genes and counteracted the senescence-associated loss of Ezh2, a catalytic subunit of the Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2). Moreover, pharmacological inhibition of Ezh2 abolished IKKß-CA-induced senescence bypass. We propose that NF-κB plays a suppressive role in the induction of stress-induced senescence through sustaining Ezh2 expression.

Col1α2-Cre-mediated recombination occurs in various cell types due to Cre expression in epiblasts.

The Cre-LoxP system has been commonly used for cell-specific genetic manipulation. However, many Cre strains exhibit excision activity in unexpected cell types or tissues. Therefore, it is important to identify the cell types in which recombination takes place. Fibroblasts are a cell type that is inadequately defined due to a lack of specific markers to detect the entire cell lineage. Here, we investigated the Cre recombination induced by Col1α2-iCre, one of the most common fibroblast-mesenchymal Cre driver lines, by using a double-fluorescent Cre reporter line in which GFP is expressed when recombination occurs. Our results indicated that Col1α2-iCre activity was more extensive across cell types than previously reported: Col1α2-iCre-mediated recombination was found in not only cells of mesenchymal origin but also those of other lineages, including haematopoietic cells, myocardial cells, lung and intestinal epithelial cells, and neural cells. In addition, study of embryos revealed that recombination by Col1α2-iCre was observed in the early developmental stage before gastrulation in epiblasts, which would account for the recombination across various cell types in adult mice. These results offer more insights into the activity of Col1α2-iCre and suggest that experimental results obtained using Col1α2-iCre should be carefully interpreted.

Smooth muscle protein 22α-Cre recombination in resting cardiac fibroblasts and hematopoietic precursors.

The Cre-loxP system has been widely used for cell- or organ-specific gene manipulation, but it is important to precisely understand what kind of cells the recombination takes place in. Smooth muscle 22α (SM22α)-Cre mice have been utilized to alter genes in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), activated fibroblasts or cardiomyocytes (CMs). Moreover, previous reports indicated that SM22α-Cre is expressed in adipocytes, platelets or myeloid cells. However, there have been no report of whether SM22α-Cre recombination takes place in nonCMs in hearts. Thus, we used the double-fluorescent Cre reporter mouse in which GFP is expressed when recombination occurs. Immunofluorescence analysis demonstrated that recombination occurred in resting cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) or macrophages, as well as VSMCs and CMs. Flow cytometry showed that some CFs, resident macrophages, neutrophils, T cells, and B cells were positive for GFP. These results prompted us to analyze bone marrow cells, and we observed GFP-positive hematopoietic precursor cells (HPCs). Taken together, these results indicated that SM22α-Cre-mediated recombination occurs in resting CFs and hematopoietic cell lineages, including HPCs, which is a cautionary point when using SM22α-Cre mice.

Improvement of insulin signalling rescues inflammatory cardiac dysfunction.

Inflammation resulting from virus infection is the cause of myocarditis; however, the precise mechanism by which inflammation induces cardiac dysfunction is still unclear. In this study, we investigated the contribution of insulin signalling to inflammatory cardiac dysfunction induced by the activation of signalling by NF-κB, a major transcriptional factor regulating inflammation. We generated mice constitutively overexpressing kinase-active IKK-ß, an essential kinase for NF-κB activation, in cardiomyocytes (KA mice). KA mice demonstrated poor survival and significant cardiac dysfunction with remarkable dilation. Histologically, KA hearts revealed increased cardiac apoptosis and fibrosis and the enhanced recruitment of immune cells. By molecular analysis, we observed the increased phosphorylation of IRS-1, indicating the suppression of insulin signalling in KA hearts. To evaluate the contribution of insulin signalling to cardiac dysfunction in KA hearts, we generated mice with cardiac-specific suppression of phosphatase and tensin homologue 10 (PTEN), a negative regulator of insulin signalling, in the KA mouse background (KA-PTEN). The suppression of PTEN successfully improved insulin signalling in KA-PTEN hearts, and interestingly, KA-PTEN mice showed significantly improved cardiac function and survival. These results indicated that impaired insulin signalling underlies the mechanism involved in inflammation-induced cardiac dysfunction, which suggests that it may be a target for the treatment of myocarditis.

Myostatin regulates cardiomyocyte growth through modulation of Akt signaling.

Myostatin is a highly conserved, potent negative regulator of skeletal muscle hypertrophy in many species, from rodents to humans, although its mechanisms of action are incompletely understood. Transcript profiling of hearts from a genetic model of cardiac hypertrophy revealed dramatic upregulation of myostatin, not previously recognized to play a role in the heart. Here we show that myostatin abrogates the cardiomyocyte growth response to phenylephrine in vitro through inhibition of p38 and the serine-threonine kinase Akt, a critical determinant of cell size in many species from drosophila to mammals. Evaluation of male myostatin-null mice revealed that their cardiomyocytes and hearts overall were slightly smaller at baseline than littermate controls but exhibited more exuberant growth in response to chronic phenylephrine infusion. The increased cardiac growth in myostatin-null mice corresponded with increased p38 phosphorylation and Akt activation in vivo after phenylephrine treatment. Together, these data demonstrate that myostatin is dynamically regulated in the heart and acts more broadly than previously appreciated to regulate growth of multiple types of striated muscle.

Deletion of IκB-Kinase ß in Smooth Muscle Cells Induces Vascular Calcification Through ß-Catenin-Runt-Related Transcription Factor 2 Signaling.

BACKGROUND: Vascular calcification was previously considered as an advanced phase of atherosclerosis; however, recent studies have indicated that such calcification can appear in different situations. Nevertheless, there has been a lack of mechanistic insight to explain the difference. For example, the roles of nuclear factor-κB, a major regulator of inflammation, in vascular calcification are poorly explored, although its roles in atherosclerosis were well documented. Herein, we investigated the roles of nuclear factor-κB signaling in vascular calcification. METHODS AND RESULTS: We produced mice with deletion of IKKß, an essential kinase for nuclear factor-κB activation, in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs; KO mice) and subjected them to the CaCl2-induced aorta injury model. Unexpectedly, KO mice showed more calcification of the aorta than their wild-type littermates, despite the former's suppressed nuclear factor-κB activity. Cultured VSMCs from the aorta of KO mice also showed significant calcification in vitro. In the molecular analysis, we found that Runt-related transcription factor 2, a transcriptional factor accelerating bone formation, was upregulated in cultured VSMCs from KO mice, and its regulator ß-catenin was more activated with suppressed ubiquitination in KO VSMCs. Furthermore, we examined VSMCs from mice in which kinase-active or kinase-dead IKKß was overexpressed in VSMCs. We found that kinase-independent function of IKKß is involved in suppression of calcification via inactivation of ß-catenin, which leads to suppression of Runt-related transcription factor 2 and osteoblast marker genes. CONCLUSIONS: IKKß negatively regulates VSMC calcification through ß-catenin-Runt-related transcription factor 2 signaling, which revealed a novel function of IKKß on vascular calcification.

AMAP1 as a negative-feedback regulator of nuclear factor-κB under inflammatory conditions.

NF-κB is a major transcriptional factor regulating many cellular functions including inflammation; therefore, its appropriate control is of high importance. The detailed mechanism of its activation has been well characterized, but that of negative regulation is poorly understood. In this study, we showed AMAP1, an Arf-GTPase activating protein, as a negative feedback regulator for NF-κB by binding with IKKß, an essential kinase in NF-κB signaling. Proteomics analysis identified AMAP1 as a binding protein with IKKß. Overexpression of AMAP1 suppressed NF-κB activity by interfering the binding of IKKß and NEMO, and deletion of AMAP1 augmented NF-κB activity. The activation of NF-κB induced translocation of AMAP1 to cytoplasm from cell membrane and nucleus, which resulted in augmented interaction of AMAP1 and IKKß. These results demonstrated a novel role of AMAP1 as a negative feedback regulator of NF-κB, and presented it as a possible target for anti-inflammatory treatments.

IKKß regulates essential functions of the vascular endothelium through kinase-dependent and -independent pathways.

Vascular endothelium provides a selective barrier between the blood and tissues, participates in wound healing and angiogenesis, and regulates tissue recruitment of inflammatory cells. Nuclear factor (NF)-κB transcription factors are pivotal regulators of survival and inflammation, and have been suggested as potential therapeutic targets in cancer and inflammatory diseases. Here we show that mice lacking IKKß, the primary kinase mediating NF-κB activation, are smaller than littermates and born at less than the expected Mendelian frequency in association with hypotrophic and hypovascular placentae. IKKß-deleted endothelium manifests increased vascular permeability and reduced migration. Surprisingly, we find that these defects result from loss of kinase-independent effects of IKKß on activation of the serine-threonine kinase, Akt. Together, these data demonstrate essential roles for IKKß in regulating endothelial permeability and migration, as well as an unanticipated connection between IKKß and Akt signalling.

Vortex-mediated mechanical stress induces integrin-dependent cell adhesion mediated by inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate-sensitive Ca2+ release in THP-1 cells.

In the downstream regions of stenotic vessels, cells are subjected to a vortex motion under low shear forces, and atherosclerotic plaques tend to be localized. It has been reported that such a change of shear force on endothelial cells has an atherogenic effect by inducing the expression of adhesion molecules. However, the effect of vortex-induced mechanical stress on leukocytes has not been investigated. In this study, to elucidate whether vortex flow can affect the cell adhesive property, we have examined the effect of vortex-mediated mechanical stress on integrin activation in THP-1 cells, a monocytic cell line, and its signaling mechanisms. When cells are subjected to vortex flow at 400-2,000 rpm, integrin-dependent cell adhesion to vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 or fibronectin increased in a speed- and time-dependent manner. Next, to examine the role of Ca(2+) in this integrin activation, various pharmacological inhibitors involved in Ca(2+) signaling were tested to inhibit the cell adhesion. Pretreatment of cells with BAPTA-AM, thapsigargin +NiCl(2), or U-73122 (a phospholipase C inhibitor) inhibited cell adhesion induced by vortex-mediated mechanical stress. We also found that W7 (a calmodulin inhibitor) blocked the cell adhesion. However, pretreatment of cells with GdCl(3), NiCl(2), or ryanodine did not affect the cell adhesion. These data indicate that vortex-mediated mechanical stress induces integrin activation through calmodulin and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate-mediated Ca(2+) releases from intracellular Ca(2+) stores in THP-1 cells.