BNIP3L promotes cardiac fibrosis in cardiac fibroblasts through [Ca
2+]
i-TGF-β-Smad2/3 pathway.
Sci Rep 2017;
7:1906. [PMID:
28507335 PMCID:
PMC5432493 DOI:
10.1038/s41598-017-01936-5]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2016] [Accepted: 04/03/2017] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Fibrosis is an important, structurally damaging event that occurs in pathological cardiac remodeling, leading to cardiac dysfunction. BNIP3L is up-regulated in pressure overload-induced heart failure and has been reported to play an important role in cardiomyocyte apoptosis; however, its involvement in cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) remains unknown. We prove for the first time that the expression of BNIP3L is significantly increased in the CFs of rats undergoing pressure overload-induced heart failure. Furthermore, this increased BNIP3L expression was confirmed in cultured neonatal rat CFs undergoing proliferation and extracellular matrix (ECM) protein over-expression that was induced by norepinephrine (NE). The overexpression or suppression of BNIP3L promoted or inhibited NE-induced proliferation and ECM expression in CFs, respectively. In addition, [Ca2+]i, transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) and the nuclear accumulation of Smad2/3 were successively increased when BNIP3L was overexpressed and reduced when BNIP3L was inhibited. Furthermore, the down-regulation of TGF-β by TGF-β-siRNA attenuated the increase of BNIP3L-induced fibronectin expression. We also demonstrated that the increase of BNIP3L in CFs was regulated by NE-AR-PKC pathway in vitro and in vivo. These results reveal that BNIP3L is a novel mediator of pressure overload-induced cardiac fibrosis through the [Ca2+]i-TGF-β-Smad2/3 pathway in CFs.
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