Mechanisms of focal adhesion quinase for mechanical stimulation in cardiac myocytes: importance of ty

Author(s)

Talita Miguel Marin

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Ciências Médicas
• Defense date: 2006-07-13

Examining board members

Kleber Gomes Franchini; Carla Roberta de Oliveira Carvalho; Rosana Almada Bassani

• Advisor: Kleber Gomes Franchini

Abstract

Mechanical forces drive changes in cardiac myocyte function and structure that occur in response to hemodynamic overload. Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) has been implicated in the sensing and transduction of mechanical forces into biochemical events in cardiac myocytes. This study was performed to examine whether the protein tyrosine-phosphatase SHP-2 plays a role in baseline and stretch induced FAK activation and signaling in cultured neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs).NRVMs were subjected to cyclic stretch up to 60 min, studied by coimmunoprecipitation, immunoblotting, tyrosine-phosphatase activity assay, RT-PCR, and used in assays utilizing recombinant SHP-2 catalytic domain. Analysis was extended to NRVMs treated with Shp2 inhibitor TFMS and with FAK/Src Inhibitor PP2. FAK had a relatively low basal level of phosphorylation at Tyr397 in non-stretched NRVMs. Cyclic stretch (1HZ, 10%) induced rapid and sustained (up to 60 min) increases in phosphorylation of FAK at Tyr397. The results of coimmunoprecipitation assays indicated that FAK and SHP-2 are associated in non-stretched NRVMs, but cyclic stretch markedly reduced (to 25% and 60% after 10 and 60 min, respectively) the amount of SHP-2 recovered from the anti-FAK antibody precipitates. The tyrosine phosphatase activity of the anti-SHP-2 immunocomplex taken from non-stretched cardiac myocytes was relatively high, but it was markedly reduced (to 60% after 10 and 60 min) in samples of stretched cells. The recombinant PTP domain of SHP-2 was demonstrated to be able to dephosphorylate the native FAK immunoprecipitated from NRVMs. The inhibition of SHP-2 activity by the pharmacological inhibitor TFMS markedly increased FAK phosphorylation at Tyr397 in non-stretched NRVMs to levels comparable to those seen in stretched cells. Treatment with TFMS lasting for 4h was accompanied by a marked increase (to 200) the expression of beta-myosin heavy chain mRNA in non-stretched NRVMs. This effect was attenuated by 25% in NRVMs simultaneous treated with the FAK/Src inhibitor PP2.In conclusion, the present data demonstrated that the basal FAK phosphorylation at Tyr397 is modulated by SHP-2 and that inhibition of SHP-2 during cyclic stretch has a permissive role on FAK activation by mechanical stress. Our results also establish the tight regulation of FAK phosphorylation by SHP-2 as a potential counter-regulatory signaling in the control of the hyperthophic genetic program in cardiac myocytes (AU)