microRNA-29b knocks down collagen type I production in cultured rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) cardiac fibroblasts

Comparative analysis of ventricular stiffness across species

Investigating ventricular diastolic properties is crucial for understanding the physiological cardiac functions in organisms and unraveling the pathological mechanisms of cardiovascular disorders. Ventricular stiffness, a fundamental parameter that defines ventricular diastolic functions in chordates, is typically analyzed using the end-diastolic pressure-volume relationship (EDPVR). However, comparing ventricular stiffness accurately across chambers of varying maximum volume capacities has been a long-standing challenge. As one of the solutions to this problem, we propose calculating a relative ventricular stiffness index by applying an exponential approximation formula to the EDPVR plot data of the relationship between ventricular pressure and values of normalized ventricular volume by the ventricular weight. This article reviews the potential, utility, and limitations of using normalized EDPVR analysis in recent studies. Herein, we measured and ranked ventricular stiffness in differently sized and shaped chambers using ex vivo ventricular pressure-volume analysis data from four animals: Wistar rats, red-eared slider turtles, masu salmon, and cherry salmon. Furthermore, we have discussed the mechanical effects of intracellular and extracellular viscoelastic components, Titin (Connectin) filaments, collagens, physiological sarcomere length, and other factors that govern ventricular stiffness. Our review provides insights into the comparison of ventricular stiffness in different-sized ventricles between heterologous and homologous species, including non-model organisms.

Getting to the heart of anatomical diversity and phenotypic plasticity: fish hearts are an optimal organ model in need of greater mechanistic study

Natural selection has produced many vertebrate 'solutions' for the cardiac life-support system, especially among the approximately 30,000 species of fishes. For example, across species, fish have the greatest range for central arterial blood pressure and relative ventricular mass of any vertebrate group. This enormous cardiac diversity is excellent ground material for mechanistic explorations. Added to this species diversity is the emerging field of population-specific diversity, which is revealing that cardiac design and function can be tailored to a fish population's local environmental conditions. Such information is important to conservation biologists and ecologists, as well as physiologists. Furthermore, the cardiac structure and function of an individual adult fish are extremely pliable (through phenotypic plasticity), which is typically beneficial to the heart's function when environmental conditions are variable. Consequently, exploring factors that trigger cardiac remodelling with acclimation to new environments represents a marvellous opportunity for performing mechanistic studies that minimize the genetic differences that accompany cross-species comparisons. What makes the heart an especially good system for the investigation of phenotypic plasticity and species diversity is that its function can be readily evaluated at the organ level using established methodologies, unlike most other organ systems. Although the fish heart has many merits as an organ-level model to provide a mechanistic understanding of phenotypic plasticity and species diversity, bringing this potential to fruition will require productive research collaborations among physiologists, geneticists, developmental biologists and ecologists.

Mitogen-activated protein kinases contribute to temperature-induced cardiac remodelling in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) live in environments where water temperatures range between 4 °C and 20 °C. Laboratory studies demonstrate that cold and warm acclimations of male trout can have oppositional effects on cardiac hypertrophy and the collagen content of the heart. The cellular mechanisms behind temperature-induced cardiac remodelling are unclear, as is why this response differs between male and female fish. Studies with cultured trout cardiac fibroblasts suggests that collagen deposition is regulated, at least in part, by mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cell signalling pathways. We, therefore, hypothesized that temperature-dependent cardiac remodelling is regulated by these signalling pathways. To test this, male and female trout were acclimated to 18 °C (warm) in the summer and to 4 °C (cold) in the winter and the activation of MAPK pathways in the hearts were characterized and compared to that of control fish maintained at 12 °C. In addition, cardiac collagen content, cardiac morphology and the expression of gene transcripts for matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) -9, MMP-2, tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases and collagen 1α were characterized. p38 MAPK phosphorylation increased in the hearts of female fish with cold acclimation and the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase increased in the hearts of male fish with warm acclimation. However, there was no effect of thermal acclimation on cardiac morphology or collagen content in either male or female fish. These results indicate that thermal acclimation has transient and sex-specific effects on the phosphorylation of MAPKs but also how variable the response of the trout heart is to thermal acclimation.

Role of the microRNA-29 family in myocardial fibrosis

Myocardial fibrosis (MF) is an inevitable pathological process in the terminal stage of many cardiovascular diseases, often leading to serious cardiac dysfunction and even death. Currently, microRNA-29 (miR-29) is thought to be a novel diagnostic and therapeutic target of MF. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of miR-29 that regulate MF will provide a new direction for MF therapy. In the present review, we concentrate on the underlying signaling pathway of miR-29 affecting MF and the crosstalk regulatory relationship among these pathways to illustrate the complex regulatory network of miR-29 in MF. Additionally, based on our mechanistic understanding, we summarize opportunities and challenges of miR-29-based MF diagnosis and therapy.