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Browsing by Author "Kim, Il-man"
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Item Aging-Associated Differences in Epitranscriptomic m6A Regulation in Response to Acute Cardiac Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in Female Mice(Frontiers Media, 2021-08-03) Su, Xuan; Shen, Yan; Jin, Yue; Kim, Il-man; Weintraub, Neal L.; Tang, Yaoliang; Anatomy and Cell Biology, School of MedicineElderly patients are more susceptible to ischemic injury. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification is the most abundant reversible epitranscriptomic modification in mammalian RNA and plays a vital role in many biological processes. However, it is unclear whether age difference impacts m6A RNA methylation in hearts and their response to acute myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. In this study, we measured the global level of m6A RNA methylation as well as the expression of m6A RNA "writers" (methylation enzymes) and "erasers" (demethylation enzymes) in the hearts of young and elderly female mice undergone sham surgery or acute MI/R injury. We found that m6A RNA level and associate modifier gene expression was similar in intact young and old female hearts. However, young hearts show a significant reduction in m6A RNA while elderly hearts showed only a slight reduction in m6A RNA in response to acute I/R injury. To explore the mechanism of differential level of m6A RNA modification, we use qRT-PCR and Western blotting to compare the mRNA and protein expression of major m6A-related "writers" (Mettl3, Mettl14, and WTAP) and 'erasers" (ALKBH5 and FTO). Mettl3 mRNA and protein expression were significantly reduced in both young and elderly hearts. However, the levels of FTO's mRNA and protein were only significantly reduced in ischemic elderly hearts, and age-related downregulation of FTO may offset the effect of reduced Mettl3 on reduced m6A RNA level in the hearts of aging mice hearts with acute I/R injury, indicating aging-related differences in epitranscriptomic m6A regulation in hearts in response to acute I/R injury. To further investigate specific I/R related targets of Mettl3, we overexpressed Mettl3 in cardiomyocyte line (HL1) using lentiviral vector, and the m6A enrichment of Bcl2, Bax and PTEN were quantified with m6A RIP-qPCR, we found that m6A modification of PTEN mRNA decreased after in vitro hypoxia/reperfusion injury (iH/R) while Mettl3 augments m6A levels of both Bax and PTEN after iH/R, indicating that Bax and PTEN are target genes of Mettl3 under iH/R stress.Item Cardiomyocyte microRNA-150 confers cardiac protection and directly represses proapoptotic small proline–rich protein 1A(American Society for Clinical Investigation, 2021-09-22) Aonuma, Tatsuya; Moukette, Bruno; Kawaguchi, Satoshi; Barupala, Nipuni P.; Sepúlveda, Marisa N.; Corr, Christopher; Tang, Yaoliang; Liangpunsakul, Suthat; Payne, R. Mark; Willis, Monte S.; Kim, Il-man; Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, School of MedicineMicroRNA-150 (miR-150) is downregulated in patients with multiple cardiovascular diseases and in diverse mouse models of heart failure (HF). miR-150 is significantly associated with HF severity and outcome in humans. We previously reported that miR-150 is activated by β-blocker carvedilol (Carv) and plays a protective role in the heart using a systemic miR-150 KO mouse model. However, mechanisms that regulate cell-specific miR-150 expression and function in HF are unknown. Here, we demonstrate that potentially novel conditional cardiomyocyte–specific (CM-specific) miR-150 KO (miR-150 cKO) in mice worsens maladaptive cardiac remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI). Genome-wide transcriptomic analysis in miR-150 cKO mouse hearts identifies small proline–rich protein 1a (Sprr1a) as a potentially novel target of miR-150. Our studies further reveal that Sprr1a expression is upregulated in CMs isolated from ischemic myocardium and subjected to simulated ischemia/reperfusion, while its expression is downregulated in hearts and CMs by Carv. We also show that left ventricular SPRR1A is upregulated in patients with HF and that Sprr1a knockdown in mice prevents maladaptive post-MI remodeling. Lastly, protective roles of CM miR-150 are, in part, attributed to the direct and functional repression of proapoptotic Sprr1a. Our findings suggest a crucial role for the miR-150/SPRR1A axis in regulating CM function post-MI.Item Identification of Novel Gene Regulatory Networks for Dystrophin Protein in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells by Single-Nuclear Transcriptome Analysis(MDPI, 2023-03-14) Shen, Yan; Kim, Il-man; Tang, Yaoliang; Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, School of MedicineDuchenne muscular dystrophy is an X-linked recessive disease caused by mutations in dystrophin proteins that lead to heart failure and respiratory failure. Dystrophin (DMD) is not only expressed in cardiomyocytes and skeletal muscle cells, but also in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Patients with DMD have been reported to have hypotension. Single nuclear RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) is a state-of-the-art technology capable of identifying niche-specific gene programs of tissue-specific cell subpopulations. To determine whether DMD mutation alters blood pressure, we compared systolic, diastolic, and mean blood pressure levels in mdx mice (a mouse model of DMD carrying a nonsense mutation in DMD gene) and the wide-type control mice. We found that mdx mice showed significantly lower systolic, diastolic, and mean blood pressure than control mice. To understand how DMD mutation changes gene expression profiles from VSMCs, we analyzed an snRNA-seq dataset from the muscle nucleus of DMD mutant (DMDmut) mice and control (Ctrl) mice. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis revealed that the most significantly activated pathways in DMDmut-VSMCs are involved in ion channel function (potassium channel activity, cation channel complex, and cation channel activity). Notably, we discovered that the DMDmut-VSMCs showed significantly upregulated expression of KCNQ5 and RYR2, whereas the most suppressed pathways were transmembrane transporter activity (such as anion transmembrane transporter activity, inorganic anion transmembrane transporter activity, import into cell, and import across plasma membrane). Moreover, we analyzed metabolic pathways from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) using "scMetabolism" R package. DMDmut-VSMCs exhibited dysregulation of pyruvate metabolism and nuclear acid metabolism. In conclusion, via the application of snRNA-seq, we (for the first time) identify the potential molecular regulation by DMD in the upregulation of the expression of KCNQ5 genes in VSMCs, which helps us to understand the mechanism of hypotension in DMD patients. Our study potentially offers new possibilities for therapeutic interventions in systemic hypotension in DMD patients with pharmacological inhibition of KCNQ5.Item Identification of the metabolic state of surviving cardiomyocytes in the human infarcted heart by spatial single-cell transcriptomics(Wolters Kluwer, 2023) Shen, Yan; Kim, Il-man; Weintraub, Neal L.; Tang, Yaoliang; Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, School of MedicineThe metabolic status of surviving cardiomyocytes (CM) in the myocardial tissues of patients who sustained myocardial infarction (MI) is largely unknown. Spatial single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) is a novel tool that enables the unbiased analysis of RNA signatures within intact tissues. We employed this tool to assess the metabolic profiles of surviving CM in the myocardial tissues of patients post-MI. Methods: A spatial scRNA-seq dataset was used to compare the genetic profiles of CM from patients with MI and control patients; we analyzed the metabolic adaptations of surviving CM within the ischemic niche. A standard pipeline in Seurat was used for data analysis, including normalization, feature selection, and identification of highly variable genes using principal component analysis (PCA). Harmony was used to remove batch effects and integrate the CM samples based on annotations. Uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) was used for dimensional reduction. The Seurat "FindMarkers" function was used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs), which were analyzed by the Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment pathway. Finally, the scMetabolism R tool pipeline with parameters method = VISION (Vision is a flexible system that utilizes a high-throughput pipeline and an interactive web-based report to annotate and explore scRNA-seq datasets in a dynamic manner) and metabolism.type = Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) was used to quantify the metabolic activity of each CM. Results: Analysis of spatial scRNA-seq data showed fewer surviving CM in infarcted hearts than in control hearts. GO analysis revealed repressed pathways in oxidative phosphorylation, cardiac cell development, and activated pathways in response to stimuli and macromolecular metabolic processes. Metabolic analysis showed downregulated energy and amino acid pathways and increased purine, pyrimidine, and one-carbon pool by folate pathways in surviving CM. Conclusions: Surviving CM within the infarcted myocardium exhibited metabolic adaptations, as evidenced by the downregulation of most pathways linked to oxidative phosphorylation, glucose, fatty acid, and amino acid metabolism. In contrast, pathways linked to purine and pyrimidine metabolism, fatty acid biosynthesis, and one-carbon metabolism were upregulated in surviving CM. These novel findings have implications for the development of effective strategies to improve the survival of hibernating CM within the infarcted heart.Item MicroRNA-150 Deletion from Adult Myofibroblasts Augments Maladaptive Cardiac Remodeling Following Chronic Myocardial Infarction(MDPI, 2024-12-22) Kawaguchi, Satoshi; Sepúlveda, Marisa N.; Teoh, Jian-peng; Hayasaka, Taiki; Moukette, Bruno; Aonuma, Tatsuya; Roh, Hyun Cheol; Madhur, Meena S.; Kim, Il-man; Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, School of MedicineMicroRNA (miR: small noncoding RNA)-150 is evolutionarily conserved and is downregulated in patients with diverse forms of heart failure (HF) and in multiple mouse models of HF. Moreover, miR-150 is markedly correlated with the outcome of patients with HF. We previously reported that systemic or cardiomyocyte-derived miR-150 in mice elicited myocardial protection through the inhibition of cardiomyocyte death, without affecting neovascularization and T cell infiltration. Our mechanistic studies also showed that the protective roles of miR-150 in ischemic mouse hearts and human cardiac fibroblasts were, in part, attributed to the inhibition of fibroblast activation via the repression of multiple profibrotic genes. However, the extent to which miR-150 expression in adult myofibroblasts (MFs) modulates the response to myocardial infarction (MI) remains unknown. Here, we develop a novel 4-hydroxytamoxifen-inducible MF-specific miR-150 conditional knockout mouse model and demonstrate that the mouse line exhibits worse cardiac dysfunction after MI. Our studies further reveal that miR-150 ablation selectively in adult MFs exacerbates cardiac damage and apoptosis after chronic MI. Lastly, MF-specific miR-150 deletion in adult mice promotes the expression of proinflammatory and profibrotic genes as well as cardiac fibrosis following chronic MI. Our findings indicate a key protective role for MF-derived miR-150 in modulating post-MI responses.Item MiR-150 attenuates maladaptive cardiac remodeling mediated by long noncoding RNA MIAT and directly represses pro-fibrotic Hoxa4(American Heart Association, 2022) Aonuma, Tatsuya; Moukette, Bruno; Kawaguchi, Satoshi; Barupala, Nipuni P.; Sepúlveda, Marisa N.; Frick, Kyle; Tang, Yaoliang; Guglin, Maya; Raman, Subha V.; Cai, Chenleng; Liangpunsakul, Suthat; Nakagawa, Shinichi; Kim, Il-man; Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, School of MedicineBackground: MicroRNA-150 (miR-150) plays a protective role in heart failure (HF). Long noncoding RNA, myocardial infarction-associated transcript (MIAT) regulates miR-150 function in vitro by direct interaction. Concurrent with miR-150 downregulation, MIAT is upregulated in failing hearts, and gain-of-function single-nucleotide polymorphisms in MIAT are associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in humans. Despite the correlative relationship between MIAT and miR-150 in HF, their in vivo functional relationship has never been established, and molecular mechanisms by which these 2 noncoding RNAs regulate cardiac protection remain elusive. Methods: We use MIAT KO (knockout), Hoxa4 (homeobox a4) KO, MIAT TG (transgenic), and miR-150 TG mice. We also develop DTG (double TG) mice overexpressing MIAT and miR-150. We then use a mouse model of MI followed by cardiac functional, structural, and mechanistic studies by echocardiography, immunohistochemistry, transcriptome profiling, Western blotting, and quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Moreover, we perform expression analyses in hearts from patients with HF. Lastly, we investigate cardiac fibroblast activation using primary adult human cardiac fibroblasts and in vitro assays to define the conserved MIAT/miR-150/HOXA4 axis. Results: Using novel mouse models, we demonstrate that genetic overexpression of MIAT worsens cardiac remodeling, while genetic deletion of MIAT protects hearts against MI. Importantly, miR-150 overexpression attenuates the detrimental post-MI effects caused by MIAT. Genome-wide transcriptomic analysis of MIAT null mouse hearts identifies Hoxa4 as a novel downstream target of the MIAT/miR-150 axis. Hoxa4 is upregulated in cardiac fibroblasts isolated from ischemic myocardium and subjected to hypoxia/reoxygenation. HOXA4 is also upregulated in patients with HF. Moreover, Hoxa4 deficiency in mice protects the heart from MI. Lastly, protective actions of cardiac fibroblast miR-150 are partially attributed to the direct and functional repression of profibrotic Hoxa4. Conclusions: Our findings delineate a pivotal functional interaction among MIAT, miR-150, and Hoxa4 as a novel regulatory mechanism pertinent to ischemic HF.Item MiR-150 blunts cardiac dysfunction in mice with cardiomyocyte loss of β1-adrenergic receptor/β-arrestin signaling and controls a unique transcriptome(Springer Nature, 2022-12-30) Moukette, Bruno; Kawaguchi, Satoshi; Sepulveda, Marisa N.; Hayasaka, Taiki; Aonuma, Tatsuya; Liangpunsakul, Suthat; Yang, Lei; Dharmakumar, Rohan; Conway, Simon J.; Kim, Il-man; Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, School of MedicineThe β1-adrenergic receptor (β1AR) is found primarily in hearts (mainly in cardiomyocytes [CMs]) and β-arrestin-mediated β1AR signaling elicits cardioprotection through CM survival. We showed that microRNA-150 (miR-150) is upregulated by β-arrestin-mediated β1AR signaling and that CM miR-150 inhibits maladaptive remodeling post-myocardial infarction. Here, we investigate whether miR-150 rescues cardiac dysfunction in mice bearing CM-specific abrogation of β-arrestin-mediated β1AR signaling. Using CM-specific transgenic (TG) mice expressing a mutant β1AR (G protein-coupled receptor kinase [GRK]–β1AR that exhibits impairment in β-arrestin-mediated β1AR signaling), we first generate a novel double TG mouse line overexpressing miR-150. We demonstrate that miR-150 is sufficient to improve cardiac dysfunction in CM-specific GRK–β1AR TG mice following chronic catecholamine stimulation. Our genome-wide circular RNA, long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), and mRNA profiling analyses unveil a subset of cardiac ncRNAs and genes as heretofore unrecognized mechanisms for beneficial actions of β1AR/β-arrestin signaling or miR-150. We further show that lncRNA Gm41664 and GDAP1L1 are direct novel upstream and downstream regulators of miR-150. Lastly, CM protective actions of miR-150 are attributed to repressing pro-apoptotic GDAP1L1 and are mitigated by pro-apoptotic Gm41664. Our findings support the idea that miR-150 contributes significantly to β1AR/β-arrestin-mediated cardioprotection by regulating unique ncRNA and gene signatures in CMs.Item Noncoding RNAs as Key Regulators for Cardiac Development and Cardiovascular Diseases(MDPI, 2023-04-12) Kawaguchi, Satoshi; Moukette, Bruno; Hayasaka, Taiki; Haskell, Angela K.; Mah, Jessica; Sepúlveda, Marisa N.; Tang, Yaoliang; Kim, Il-man; Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, School of MedicineNoncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) play fundamental roles in cardiac development and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), which are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. With advances in RNA sequencing technology, the focus of recent research has transitioned from studies of specific candidates to whole transcriptome analyses. Thanks to these types of studies, new ncRNAs have been identified for their implication in cardiac development and CVDs. In this review, we briefly describe the classification of ncRNAs into microRNAs, long ncRNAs, and circular RNAs. We then discuss their critical roles in cardiac development and CVDs by citing the most up-to-date research articles. More specifically, we summarize the roles of ncRNAs in the formation of the heart tube and cardiac morphogenesis, cardiac mesoderm specification, and embryonic cardiomyocytes and cardiac progenitor cells. We also highlight ncRNAs that have recently emerged as key regulators in CVDs by focusing on six of them. We believe that this review concisely addresses perhaps not all but certainly the major aspects of current progress in ncRNA research in cardiac development and CVDs. Thus, this review would be beneficial for readers to obtain a recent picture of key ncRNAs and their mechanisms of action in cardiac development and CVDs.Item RNAase III-Type Enzyme Dicer Regulates Mitochondrial Fatty Acid Oxidative Metabolism in Cardiac Mesenchymal Stem Cells(MDPI, 2019-11-07) Su, Xuan; Jin, Yue; Shen, Yan; Kim, Il-man; Weintraub, Neal L.; Tang, Yaoliang; Anatomy and Cell Biology, School of MedicineCardiac mesenchymal stem cells (C-MSC) play a key role in maintaining normal cardiac function under physiological and pathological conditions. Glycolysis and mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation predominately account for energy production in C-MSC. Dicer, a ribonuclease III endoribonuclease, plays a critical role in the control of microRNA maturation in C-MSC, but its role in regulating C-MSC energy metabolism is largely unknown. In this study, we found that Dicer knockout led to concurrent increase in both cell proliferation and apoptosis in C-MSC compared to Dicer floxed C-MSC. We analyzed mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation by quantifying cellular oxygen consumption rate (OCR), and glycolysis by quantifying the extracellular acidification rate (ECAR), in C-MSC with/without Dicer gene deletion. Dicer gene deletion significantly reduced mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation while increasing glycolysis in C-MSC. Additionally, Dicer gene deletion selectively reduced the expression of β-oxidation genes without affecting the expression of genes involved in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle or electron transport chain (ETC). Finally, Dicer gene deletion reduced the copy number of mitochondrially encoded 1,4-Dihydronicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH): ubiquinone oxidoreductase core subunit 6 (MT-ND6), a mitochondrial-encoded gene, in C-MSC. In conclusion, Dicer gene deletion induced a metabolic shift from oxidative metabolism to aerobic glycolysis in C-MSC, suggesting that Dicer functions as a metabolic switch in C-MSC, which in turn may regulate proliferation and environmental adaptation.Item SPRR1A is a key downstream effector of MiR-150 during both maladaptive cardiac remodeling in mice and human cardiac fibroblast activation(Springer Nature, 2023-07-19) Kawaguchi, Satoshi; Moukette, Bruno; Sepúlveda, Marisa N.; Hayasaka, Taiki; Aonuma, Tatsuya; Haskell, Angela K.; Mah, Jessica; Liangpunsakul, Suthat; Tang, Yaoliang; Conway, Simon J.; Kim, Il-man; Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, School of MedicineMicroRNA-150 (miR-150) is conserved between rodents and humans, is significantly downregulated during heart failure (HF), and correlates with patient outcomes. We previously reported that miR-150 is protective during myocardial infarction (MI) in part by decreasing cardiomyocyte (CM) apoptosis and that proapoptotic small proline-rich protein 1a (Sprr1a) is a direct CM target of miR-150. We also showed that Sprr1a knockdown in mice improves cardiac dysfunction and fibrosis post-MI and that Sprr1a is upregulated in pathological mouse cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) from ischemic myocardium. However, the direct functional relationship between miR-150 and SPRR1A during both post-MI remodeling in mice and human CF (HCF) activation was not established. Here, using a novel miR-150 knockout;Sprr1a-hypomorphic (Sprr1ahypo/hypo) mouse model, we demonstrate that Sprr1a knockdown blunts adverse post-MI effects caused by miR-150 loss. Moreover, HCF studies reveal that SPRR1A is upregulated in hypoxia/reoxygenation-treated HCFs and is downregulated in HCFs exposed to the cardioprotective β-blocker carvedilol, which is inversely associated with miR-150 expression. Significantly, we show that the protective roles of miR-150 in HCFs are directly mediated by functional repression of profibrotic SPRR1A. These findings delineate a pivotal functional interaction between miR-150 and SPRR1A as a novel regulatory mechanism pertinent to CF activation and ischemic HF.