Verification of genes LOC100910229 and LOC641520 as surface markers of cardiomyocytes precursor’s cells

• Grant number: 13/26246-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2014
• End date: December 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Morphology - Cytology and Cell Biology
• Principal Investigator: José Eduardo Krieger
• Grantee: Júlia Dias de Oliveira Campos
• Host Institution: Instituto do Coração Professor Euryclides de Jesus Zerbini (INCOR). Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da USP (HCFMUSP). Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Cardiovascular conditions, especially ischemic cardiomyopathies, are a major public health problem worldwide. Because of the low regenerative capacity of the adult myocardium, still very little can be done to promote functional recovery after injury. Recently, some paradigms involving the cardiac capacity of regeneration were broken. It has been demonstrated that the adult heart preserves a cell population responsible for renewing the myocardium through life. This pool is composed of cardiac precursors' cells. Furthermore, it was found that some animals, such as the zebra fish, have the remarkable ability of heart reconstruction preserving cardiac function after resection or necrosis of a great part of their ventricle. In mammals, this regenerative capacity has also been found. Neonatal rats that have their ventricule resected at one day after birth fully recover heart function. Meanwhile, if the same procedure is performed on rats after seven days of birth, there aren't satisfactory functional repair. There are only a few surface markers for cardiac precursors' cells and none is specific for the cells capable of reconstruction in the resected animal. In our laboratory, attempting to identify these cardiac precursors' cells and markers, we analyzed by RNASeq the differential expression of genes in the rat heart resected at a day and seven days of birth and in non-manipulated hearts at nine days of birth. Differences were observed among the three samples, ranging from mitochondrial genes to genes that encode membrane proteins and include even unknown genes.In this project, it will be tested the hypothesis that the genes LOC641520 and LOC100910229 serve as surface markers for cardiomyocyte precursor cells. They are unknown membrane genes more expressed in resected rats with one day of birth than in the other two groups, according to our analysis. Their characterization as surface markers of cardiac precursors may contribute for localization of these cells in the adult myocardium and for understanding the mechanisms involved in cardiac regeneration.