Overexpression of Cx43 in cells of the myocardial scar: Correction of post-infarct arrhythmias through heterotypic cell-cell coupling

Autor: Wilhelm Roell, Alexandra M. Klein, Martin Breitbach, Torsten S. Becker, Ashish Parikh, Jane Lee, Katrin Zimmermann, Shaun Reining, Beth Gabris, Annika Ottersbach, Robert Doran, Britta Engelbrecht, Miriam Schiffer, Kenichi Kimura, Patricia Freitag, Esther Carls, Caroline Geisen, Georg D. Duerr, Philipp Sasse, Armin Welz, Alexander Pfeifer, Guy Salama, Michael Kotlikoff, Bernd K. Fleischmann
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: Scientific Reports, Vol 8, Iss 1, Pp 1-14 (2018)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2045-2322
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-25147-8
Popis: Abstract Ventricular tachycardia (VT) is the most common and potentially lethal complication following myocardial infarction (MI). Biological correction of the conduction inhomogeneity that underlies re-entry could be a major advance in infarction therapy. As minimal increases in conduction of infarcted tissue markedly influence VT susceptibility, we reasoned that enhanced propagation of the electrical signal between non-excitable cells within a resolving infarct might comprise a simple means to decrease post-infarction arrhythmia risk. We therefore tested lentivirus-mediated delivery of the gap-junction protein Connexin 43 (Cx43) into acute myocardial lesions. Cx43 was expressed in (myo)fibroblasts and CD45+ cells within the scar and provided prominent and long lasting arrhythmia protection in vivo. Optical mapping of Cx43 injected hearts revealed enhanced conduction velocity within the scar, indicating Cx43-mediated electrical coupling between myocytes and (myo)fibroblasts. Thus, Cx43 gene therapy, by direct in vivo transduction of non-cardiomyocytes, comprises a simple and clinically applicable biological therapy that markedly reduces post-infarction VT.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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