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Parakrine Regulation von kardialen Fibroblasten durch lokale natriuretische Peptide

Fachliche Zuordnung Anatomie und Physiologie
Förderung Förderung von 2016 bis 2021
Projektkennung Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 322613005
 

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

Cardiac remodelling in response to pressure overload or ischemia involves not only cardiomyocyte alterations but also activation of fibroblasts to myofibroblasts and microcirculatory changes. These changes are aggravated by an imbalance of local and systemic neurohumoral factors, finally resulting in impaired cardiac function. Among these factors are the natriuretic peptides (NPs) atrial and B-type (ANP and BNP, mainly released from cardiomyocytes) as well as C-type NP (CNP, secreted by endothelial cells). NPs signal through specific transmembrane guanylyl cyclase (GC) receptors and cyclic GMP as intracellular second messenger: GC-A (the receptor shared by ANP and BNP) and GC-B (for CNP). Our previous experimental studies in genetic mouse models showed that ANP and BNP may act as key local antihypertrophic and proangiogenic factors during pathological cardiac remodelling. The cardiovascular roles of CNP are less well understood. Under physiological conditions, the cardiac levels of CNP are very low, but they markedly and acutely increase in response to cardiac “stress”. Its GC-B receptor is expressed in all resident myocardial cells including fibroblasts, cardiomyocytes and microcirculatory pericytes. Infusions of synthetic, exogenous CNP or of stabilized peptide mimetics had protective antihypertrophic and antifibrotic effects in pre-clinical models of pathological cardiac remodelling. To dissect the paracrine cardiac actions of endogenously formed CNP, we generated novel genetic mouse models with conditional, cell-specific inactivations of the GC-B receptor. Our studies in such mice revealed that local endothelial CNP, elevating intracellular cGMP levels in cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts, targets both components of ventricular diastolic stiffness: it enhances the phosphorylation of titin and thereby titin-based cardiomyocyte distensibility (1); and it counteracts pathological, especially Angiotensin II-mediated fibroblast activation and cardiac fibrosis. Moreover, CNP acts on microcirculatory pericytes and improves their vitality (2) and prevents endothelin-induced contractions (3). Ultimately this attenuates microcirculatory resistance, improves tissue perfusion and diminishes cardiac afterload and work (3). Such cardiac and systemic effects of this endogenous „friend of the heart“ might be exploited for the development of novel therapies for heart failure. In fact, since CNP is the most susceptible of the natriuretic peptides to neprilysin degradation (4), it is possible that this member of the natriuretic peptide family contributes in a significant way to the cardioprotective influence of the dual neprilysin/angiotensin receptor blocker LCZ696 (EntrestoR) in heart failure.

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

 
 

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