Nuclear Calcium/Calmodulin-dependent Protein Kinase II Signaling Enhances Cardiac Progenitor Cell Survival and Cardiac Lineage Commitment

Ca²⁺/Calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) signaling in the heart regulates cardiomyocyte contractility and growth in response to elevated intracellular Ca²⁺. The δB isoform of CaMKII is the predominant nuclear splice variant in the adult heart and regulates cardiomyocyte hypertrophic gene expression by signaling to the histone deacetylase HDAC4. However, the role of CaMKIIδ in cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) has not been previously explored. During post-natal growth endogenous CPCs display primarily cytosolic CaMKIIδ, which localizes to the nuclear compartment of CPCs after myocardial infarction injury. CPCs undergoing early differentiation in vitro increase levels of CaMKIIδB in the nuclear compartment where the kinase may contribute to the regulation of CPC commitment. CPCs modified with lentiviral-based constructs to overexpress CaMKIIδB (CPCeδB) have reduced proliferative rate compared with CPCs expressing eGFP alone (CPCe). Additionally, stable expression of CaMKIIδB promotes distinct morphological changes such as increased cell surface area and length of cells compared with CPCe. CPCeδB are resistant to oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) relative to CPCe, whereas knockdown of CaMKIIδB resulted in an up-regulation of cell death and cellular senescence markers compared with scrambled treated controls. Dexamethasone (Dex) treatment increased mRNA and protein expression of cardiomyogenic markers cardiac troponin T and α-smooth muscle actin in CPCeδB compared with CPCe, suggesting increased differentiation. Therefore, CaMKIIδB may serve as a novel modulatory protein to enhance CPC survival and commitment into the cardiac and smooth muscle lineages.     

干细胞与再生医学研究进展

干细胞具有分化成为体内所有类型细胞的能力,因此,其在再生医学治疗、体外疾病模拟、药物筛选等方面具有广阔的应用前景。干细胞技术在近些年取得了突飞猛进的发展,特别是诱导多能性干细胞的出现使干细胞领域经历了一场巨大的变革。我国干细胞研究在这场干细胞技术变革中取得了多项重大成果,逐渐成为了世界干细胞研究领域中的重要力量。本综述着重介绍近几年来,主要是诱导多能性干细胞技术出现之后,我国在干细胞和再生医学领域取得的重要进展,主要涵盖诱导多能性干细胞、转分化、单倍体干细胞以及基因修饰动物模型和基因治疗等方面。