Effect of tyrosine phosphatase Shp2 silencing on phenotypic changes of cardiomycytes and effect of mutations and deletion of Shp2 in the hearts of mjice subjected to mechanical stress

Author(s)

Talita Miguel Marin

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Ciências Médicas
• Defense date: 2010-07-12

Examining board members

Kleber Gomes Franchini; José Barreto Campello Carvalheira; Fabio Papes; José Xavier Neto; Maria Irene Kontaridis

• Advisor: Kleber Gomes Franchini

Abstract

Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) has been implicated in the sensing and transduction of mechanical forces, which drive changes in cardiac myocyte function and structure, in response to hemodynamic overload, into biochemical events in cardiac myocytes. This study was performed to examine whether Shp2 (Src homology region 2, phosphatase 2) controls Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) activity and its trophic actions in cardiomyocytes. Our study was performed in neonatal rat ventricular myocytes subjected to depletion of Shp2 by RNA interference and genetically modified mice carrying mutations that induce gain and loss of function and Shp2 cardiac-specific conditional gene deletion.Depletion of Shp2 by specific small interfering RNA increased the phosphorylation of FAK Tyr397, Src Tyr418, AKT Ser473, TSC2 Thr1462, and S6 kinase Thr389 and induced hypertrophic gene expression pattern (?- MHC) and phenotype of nonstretched NRVMs. Inhibition of FAK/Src activity by PP2 {4-amino-5-(4-chlorophenyl)-7- (t-butyl)pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine} abolished the phosphorylation of AKT, TSC2, and S6 kinase, as well as the hypertrophy of NRVMs induced by Shp2 depletion. Inhibition of mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) with rapamycin blunted the hypertrophy in NRVMs depleted of Shp2. NRVMs treated with PP2 or depleted of FAK by specific small interfering RNA were defective in FAK, Src, extracellular signal-regulated kinase, AKT, TSC2, and S6 kinase phosphorylation, as well as in the hypertrophic response to prolonged stretch. The stretch-induced hypertrophy of NRVMs was also prevented by rapamycin. Subsequently we tested the hypothesis that the introduction of mutations in the Shp2 gene, causing protein deletion or loss of protein function, would contribute to increase the levels of tyrosine phosphorylation of FAK resulting in a hypertrophic phenotype in mice hearts. Likewise, we investigated the possibility that the introduction of a mutation in the Shp2 gene, which leads to gain of function, would result in decrease phosphorylation of FAK. The results were consistent in pointing out that the loss of protein or impairment of the function of Shp2 (gene deletion, depletion or mutation) induces increased activation of FAK, AKT and a the mTOR/S6K pathways, which are signaling pathways known to be involved in controlling cardiac growth and hypertrophy. Ls-Shp2 mice recapitulated the human disorder, with short stature, craniofacial dysmorphia, and morphological, histological, echocardiographic and molecular evidence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Heart and/or cardiomyocyte lysates from LS-Shp2 mice showed decreased Shp2 catalytic activity, consistent with previous reports that LS mutants have dominant negative effects. Remarkably, the cardiac hypertropic phenotype in LS-Shp2 mice were completely reversed by treatment with the mTOR inhibitor, rapamycin. Consistently, the gain of function of Shp2 (induced by mutation) was accompanied by decreased basal activity of FAK and AKT and proteins involved in the mTOR signaling pathway. These findings demonstrate that basal Shp2 tyrosine phosphatase activity controls the size of cardiomyocytes by downregulating a pathway that involves FAK/Src and mTOR signaling pathways. 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)