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Rodrigues Bento J, Krebsová A, Van Gucht I, Valdivia Callejon I, Van Berendoncks A, Votypka P, Luyckx I, Peldova P, Laga S, Havelka M, Van Laer L, Trunecka P, Boeckx N, Verstraeten A, Macek M, Meester JAN, Loeys B. Isolated aneurysmal disease as an underestimated finding in individuals with JAG1 pathogenic variants. Hum Mutat 2022; 43:1824-1828. [PMID: 35819173 PMCID: PMC10084246 DOI: 10.1002/humu.24433] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2022] [Revised: 06/28/2022] [Accepted: 07/06/2022] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Pathogenic variants in JAG1 are known to cause Alagille syndrome (ALGS), a disorder that primarily affects the liver, lung, kidney, and skeleton. Whereas cardiac symptoms are also frequently observed in ALGS, thoracic aortic aneurysms have only been reported sporadically in postmortem autopsies. We here report two families with segregating JAG1 variants that present with isolated aneurysmal disease, as well as the first histological evaluation of aortic aneurysm tissue of a JAG1 variant carrier. Our observations shed more light on the pathomechanisms behind aneurysm formation in JAG1 variant harboring individuals and underline the importance of cardiovascular imaging in the clinical follow-up of such individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jotte Rodrigues Bento
- Centre of Medical Genetics, Antwerp University Hospital/University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Alice Krebsová
- Department of Cardiology, Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disorders, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM), Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Ilse Van Gucht
- Centre of Medical Genetics, Antwerp University Hospital/University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Irene Valdivia Callejon
- Centre of Medical Genetics, Antwerp University Hospital/University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - An Van Berendoncks
- Department of Cardiology, Antwerp University Hospital/University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Pavel Votypka
- Department of Biology and Medical Genetics, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and Motol University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Ilse Luyckx
- Centre of Medical Genetics, Antwerp University Hospital/University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.,Department of Human Genetics, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Petra Peldova
- Department of Biology and Medical Genetics, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and Motol University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Steven Laga
- Department of Cardiac Surgery, Antwerp University Hospital/University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Marek Havelka
- Department of Biology and Medical Genetics, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and Motol University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Lut Van Laer
- Centre of Medical Genetics, Antwerp University Hospital/University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Pavel Trunecka
- Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Transplant Center of Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM), Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Nele Boeckx
- Centre of Medical Genetics, Antwerp University Hospital/University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Aline Verstraeten
- Centre of Medical Genetics, Antwerp University Hospital/University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Milan Macek
- Department of Biology and Medical Genetics, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and Motol University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Josephina A N Meester
- Centre of Medical Genetics, Antwerp University Hospital/University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Bart Loeys
- Centre of Medical Genetics, Antwerp University Hospital/University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.,Department of Human Genetics, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Nijak A, Simons E, Vandendriessche B, Van de Sande D, Fransen E, Sieliwończyk E, Van Gucht I, Van Craenenbroeck E, Saenen J, Heidbuchel H, Ponsaerts P, Labro AJ, Snyders D, De Vos W, Schepers D, Alaerts M, Loeys BL. Morpho-functional comparison of differentiation protocols to create iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. Biol Open 2022; 11:274508. [PMID: 35195246 PMCID: PMC8890088 DOI: 10.1242/bio.059016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2021] [Accepted: 12/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Cardiomyocytes derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-CMs) offer an attractive platform for cardiovascular research. Patient-specific iPSC-CMs are very useful for studying disease development, and bear potential for disease diagnostics, prognosis evaluation and development of personalized treatment. Several monolayer-based serum-free protocols have been described for the differentiation of iPSCs into cardiomyocytes, but data on their performance are scarce. In this study, we evaluated two protocols that are based on temporal modulation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway for iPSC-CM differentiation from four iPSC lines, including two control individuals and two patients carrying an SCN5A mutation. The SCN5A gene encodes the cardiac voltage-gated sodium channel (Nav1.5) and loss-of-function mutations can cause the cardiac arrhythmia Brugada syndrome. We performed molecular characterization of the obtained iPSC-CMs by immunostaining for cardiac specific markers and by expression analysis of selected cardiac structural and ionic channel protein-encoding genes with qPCR. We also investigated cell growth morphology, contractility and survival of the iPSC-CMs after dissociation. Finally, we performed electrophysiological characterization of the cells, focusing on the action potential (AP) and calcium transient (CT) characteristics using patch-clamping and optical imaging, respectively. Based on our comprehensive morpho-functional analysis, we concluded that both tested protocols result in a high percentage of contracting CMs. Moreover, they showed acceptable survival and cell quality after dissociation (>50% of cells with a smooth cell membrane, possible to seal during patch-clamping). Both protocols generated cells presenting with typical iPSC-CM AP and CT characteristics, although one protocol (that involves sequential addition of CHIR99021 and Wnt-C59) rendered iPSC-CMs, which were more accessible for patch-clamp and calcium transient experiments and showed an expression pattern of cardiac-specific markers more similar to this observed in human heart left ventricle samples. Summary: In this study, we evaluated two protocols that are based on temporal modulation of the Wnt/β -catenin pathway for iPSC-CM differentiation from four iPSC lines. We show that both protocols were successful in the generation of contracting iPSC-CMs. However, one of the tested protocols rendered cells that were more accessible for patch-clamp experiments and showed an expression pattern of cardiac-specific markers more similar to this of human heart left ventricle samples.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleksandra Nijak
- Center of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp & Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp 2650, Belgium
| | - Eline Simons
- Center of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp & Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp 2650, Belgium
| | - Bert Vandendriessche
- Center of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp & Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp 2650, Belgium
| | - Dieter Van de Sande
- Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Cellular and Network Excitability, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp 2610, Belgium
| | - Erik Fransen
- StatUa Center of Statistics, University of Antwerp 2650, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Ewa Sieliwończyk
- Center of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp & Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp 2650, Belgium
| | - Ilse Van Gucht
- Center of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp & Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp 2650, Belgium
| | - Emeline Van Craenenbroeck
- Department of Cardiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp and Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp 2650, Belgium
| | - Johan Saenen
- Department of Cardiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp and Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp 2650, Belgium
| | - Hein Heidbuchel
- Department of Cardiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp and Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp 2650, Belgium
| | - Peter Ponsaerts
- Laboratory of Experimental Hematology, Vaccine & Infectious Disease Institute, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp 2610, Belgium
| | - Alain J Labro
- Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Cellular and Network Excitability, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp 2610, Belgium.,Department of Basic and Applied Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent 9000, Belgium
| | - Dirk Snyders
- Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Cellular and Network Excitability, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp 2610, Belgium
| | - Winnok De Vos
- Laboratory of Cell Biology and Histology, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp 2610, Belgium
| | - Dorien Schepers
- Center of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp & Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp 2650, Belgium.,Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Cellular and Network Excitability, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp 2610, Belgium
| | - Maaike Alaerts
- Center of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp & Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp 2650, Belgium
| | - Bart L Loeys
- Center of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp & Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp 2650, Belgium.,Department of Human Genetics, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen 6525, The Netherlands
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Van Gucht I, Meester JA, Bento JR, Bastiaansen M, Bastianen J, Luyckx I, Van Den Heuvel L, Neutel CH, Guns PJ, Vermont M, Fransen E, Perik MH, Velchev JD, Alaerts M, Schepers D, Peeters S, Pintelon I, Almesned A, Ferla MP, Taylor JC, Dallosso AR, Williams M, Evans J, Rosenfeld JA, Sluysmans T, Rodrigues D, Chikermane A, Bharmappanavara G, Vijayakumar K, Mottaghi Moghaddam Shahri H, Hashemi N, Torbati PN, Toosi MB, Al-Hassnan ZN, Vogt J, Revencu N, Maystadt I, Miller EM, Weaver KN, Begtrup A, Houlden H, Murphy D, Maroofian R, Pagnamenta AT, Van Laer L, Loeys BL, Verstraeten A, Verstraeten A. A human importin-β-related disorder: Syndromic thoracic aortic aneurysm caused by bi-allelic loss-of-function variants in IPO8. Am J Hum Genet 2021; 108:1115-1125. [PMID: 34010605 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.04.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2021] [Accepted: 04/23/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Importin 8, encoded by IPO8, is a ubiquitously expressed member of the importin-β protein family that translocates cargo molecules such as proteins, RNAs, and ribonucleoprotein complexes into the nucleus in a RanGTP-dependent manner. Current knowledge of the cargoes of importin 8 is limited, but TGF-β signaling components such as SMAD1-4 have been suggested to be among them. Here, we report that bi-allelic loss-of-function variants in IPO8 cause a syndromic form of thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) with clinical overlap with Loeys-Dietz and Shprintzen-Goldberg syndromes. Seven individuals from six unrelated families showed a consistent phenotype with early-onset TAA, motor developmental delay, connective tissue findings, and craniofacial dysmorphic features. A C57BL/6N Ipo8 knockout mouse model recapitulates TAA development from 8-12 weeks onward in both sexes but most prominently shows ascending aorta dilatation with a propensity for dissection in males. Compliance assays suggest augmented passive stiffness of the ascending aorta in male Ipo8-/- mice throughout life. Immunohistological investigation of mutant aortic walls reveals elastic fiber disorganization and fragmentation along with a signature of increased TGF-β signaling, as evidenced by nuclear pSmad2 accumulation. RT-qPCR assays of the aortic wall in male Ipo8-/- mice demonstrate decreased Smad6/7 and increased Mmp2 and Ccn2 (Ctgf) expression, reinforcing a role for dysregulation of the TGF-β signaling pathway in TAA development. Because importin 8 is the most downstream TGF-β-related effector implicated in TAA pathogenesis so far, it offers opportunities for future mechanistic studies and represents a candidate drug target for TAA.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Aline Verstraeten
- Center of Medical Genetics, University of Antwerp and Antwerp University Hospital, Edegem 2650, Belgium.
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