Affiliation:
1. Department of Pharmacology, Nantong University Medical College, 19 Qi Xiu Road, Nantong 226001 P.R. China.
2. Department of Pharmacy, Shanghai Changning Central Hospital, Shanghai, P.R. China.
Abstract
Most cardiac diseases are associated with fibrosis. Calcineurin (CaN) is regulated by Ca2+/calmodulin (CaM). The CaN–NFAT (nuclear factor of activated T cell) pathway is involved in the process of cardiac diseases, such as cardiac hypertrophy, but its effect on myocardial fibrosis remains unclear. The present study investigates whether the CaN–NFAT pathway is involved in cardiac fibroblast (CF) proliferation induced by electrical field stimulation (EFS), which recently became a popular treatment for heart failure and cardiac tissue engineering. CF proliferation was evaluated by a cell survival assay (MTT) and cell counts. Myocardial fibrosis was assessed by collagen I and collagen III protein expression. Green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged NFAT was used to detect NFAT nuclear translocation. CF proliferation, myocardial fibrosis, CaN activity, and NFAT nuclear translocation were enhanced by EFS. More importantly, these effects were abolished by CaN inhibitors, dominant negative CaN (DN-CaN), and CaN gene silenced with siRNA. Furthermore, buffering intracellular Ca2+ with BAPTA-AM and blocking Ca2+ influx with nifedipine suppressed EFS-induced increase in intracellular Ca2+ and CF proliferation. These results suggested that the CaN–NFAT pathway mediates CF proliferation, and that the CaN–NFAT pathway might be a possible therapeutic target for EFS-induced myocardial fibrosis and cardiac tissue engineering.
Publisher
Canadian Science Publishing
Subject
Physiology (medical),Pharmacology,General Medicine,Physiology
Cited by
16 articles.
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