Ablation of C-type natriuretic peptide/cGMP signaling in fibroblasts exacerbates adverse cardiac remodeling in mice
Franziska Werner, … , Hideo A. Baba, Michaela Kuhn
Franziska Werner, … , Hideo A. Baba, Michaela Kuhn
Published May 25, 2023
Citation Information: JCI Insight. 2023;8(13):e160416. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.160416.
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Research Article Cardiology

Ablation of C-type natriuretic peptide/cGMP signaling in fibroblasts exacerbates adverse cardiac remodeling in mice

Abstract

Excessive activation of cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) in response to injury provokes cardiac fibrosis, stiffness, and failure. The local mediators counterregulating this response remain unclear. Exogenous C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) exerts antifibrotic effects in preclinical models. To unravel the role of the endogenous hormone, we generated mice with fibroblast-restricted deletion (KO) of guanylyl cyclase-B (GC-B), the cGMP-synthesizing CNP receptor. CNP activated GC-B/cGMP signaling in human and murine CFs, preventing proliferative and promigratory effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) and TGF-β. Fibroblast-specific GC-B–KO mice showed enhanced fibrosis in response to Ang II infusions. Moreover, after 2 weeks of mild pressure overload induced by transverse aortic constriction (TAC), such KO mice had augmented cardiac fibrosis and hypertrophy, together with systolic and diastolic contractile dysfunction. This was associated with increased expression of the profibrotic genes encoding collagen I, III, and periostin. Notably, such responses to Ang II and TAC were greater in female as compared with male KO mice. Enhanced Ang II–induced CNP expression in female hearts and augmented GC-B expression and activity in female CFs may contribute to this sex disparity. The results show that paracrine CNP signaling in CFs has antifibrotic and antihypertrophic effects. The CNP/GC-B/cGMP pathway might be a target for therapies combating pathological cardiac remodeling.

Authors

Franziska Werner, Estefania Prentki Santos, Konstanze Michel, Hanna Schrader, Katharina Völker, Tamara Potapenko, Lisa Krebes, Marco Abeßer, Dorothe Möllmann, Martin Schlattjan, Hannes Schmidt, Boris V. Skryabin, Katarina Špiranec Spes, Kai Schuh, Christopher P. Denton, Hideo A. Baba, Michaela Kuhn

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Figure 1

CNP/GC-B/GMP signaling in cultured human cardiac fibroblasts.

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CNP/GC-B/GMP signaling in cultured human cardiac fibroblasts. Studies we...
Studies were performed with cells of 1 male and 1 female donor at passages 4 and 5. (A) Immunoblot: GC-B protein expression in enriched cell membranes was normalized to Na+/K+-ATPase and calculated as x-fold vs. male fibroblasts (n = 3 of each donor; unpaired 2-tailed t test). (B) Effects of CNP and ANP on intracellular cGMP contents determined by radioimmunoassay and calculated as x-fold vs. PBS; n = 8 (4 wells from each donor; 1-way ANOVA). (C) iCELLigence technology was used to study cell proliferation in real time. PBS, CNP (100 nM), and/or Ang II (10 nM) were added for 24 hours (n = 4 wells per condition, 2 from each donor; nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis analyses). (D) For wound closure assays, cells were seeded and grown until confluent. A scratch was made followed by TGF-β (10 ng/mL) treatment in the absence (vehicle) or presence of CNP (100 nM). Wound closure was quantified at 24 hours. Right: Representative images (n = 4; 2-way ANOVA). (E) Immunoblots: Expression of collagen I and periostin in cells treated with vehicle (PBS) or TGF-β (10 ng/mL) for 24 hours in the absence (PBS) or presence of CNP (10 and 100 nM). Target proteins were normalized to GAPDH (as loading control) and expressed as x-fold vs. PBS (n = 2–4 from the 2 donors; statistical evaluations were not applied due to low number of samples). *P < 0.05 vs. PBS; #P < 0.05 vs. Ang II (C) or vehicle (D).