Signaling function of β-catenin during adult myocardium adaptation to physical training

Abstract

Aims. Our current work is devoted to the adaptation of the myocardium of wild-type and animals with embryonic cardiospecific haploinsufficiency of β-catenin to physical training, namely smimming. Methods. Trangenic and wild-type animals were subjected to swimming test. The qPCR analysis of hypertrohic (ANP, BNP, β-MHC and α-MHC) and Wnt/β-catenin pathway target genes (TCF4 and c-myc) was performed for control and trained mice. The HW/BW index was calculated to estimate myocardium hypertrophy development. Results. The increase of HW/BW index for trained animals was shown. The increase of hypertrophic genes (ANP, BNP, β-MHC, and α-MHC) were detected in both trained and control animals with β-catenin gene haploinsufficiency. It is also important to note that Wnt target genes were upregulated only in the β-catenin haploinsufficient stressed animals. Conclusions. The results show that β-catenin gene deficiency leads to fetal (hypertrophic) genes violation even for unstressed animals. The activation of Wnt-signaling pathway was detected during adult myocardium adaptation to physical stress. These observations point to the conclusion that β-catenin gene function plays important role in the heart adaptation and remodeling during stress.

Keywords: physiological cardiac hypertrophy, β-catenin haploinsufficiency, canonical Wnt signaling, heart adaptation, physical training.