Abstract
Introduction: Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β is a potent growth factor that induces myocardial hypertrophy, but an interaction between circulating and myocardial TGF-β has been poorly understood. An extracellular matrix protein, fibulin-2, mediates exogenous TGF-β-induced endogenous TGF-β up-regulation in isolated cardiac fibroblasts. Hypothesis: Systemic TGF-β-induced myocardial hypertrophy is mediated primarily by enhanced myocardial TGF-β via paracrine fashion. Methods: We created double mutant mice with TGF-β1 over-expressing transgenic mice (TG) and fibulin-2 knockout mice (KO). TG developed myocardial hypertrophy due to excessive circulating hepatic TGF-β. We studied TGF-β dynamics between tissues and circulation during hypertrophic changes. Results: TG/WT developed significant myocardial hypertrophy at 8 weeks compared with non-TG (NTG) groups. Hypertrophy in TG/KO was significantly attenuated compared with TG/WT. Myocardial TGF-β mRNA level was significantly up-regulated in TG/WT compared with TG/KO or NGT groups, so was Smad2 activation, but myocardial TGF-β bioactivity was no different among all four groups. Serum carrier-bound TGF-β was significantly higher in TG/WT than in TG/KO or NTG groups, but free unbound TGF-β level was equally elevated in TG groups compared with NTG groups. Thus, hypertrophy in TG/WT may be attributed to increased serum carrier-bound TGF-β levels, not to either myocardial TGF-β activity or serum unbound TGF-β levels. Endogenous TGF-β mRNA level in kidney and liver was equally increased in TG group compared with NTG group, and was comparable in all 4 groups in lung, suggesting fibulin-2 was not involved in TGF-β-induced TGF-β synthesis in kidney, liver, or lung. Conclusions: Hepatic TGF-β-induced-myocardial TGF-β up-regulation was mediated by fibulin-2. In TG/WT, up-regulated myocardial TGF-β was mainly secreted into circulation as a soluble carrier-bound form and did not directly induce hypertrophy via paracrine fashion. It is this circulating endogenous myocardial TGF-β rather than transgene-induced hepatic TGF-β that is responsible for myocardial hypertrophy in TG/WT. Heart is a major endocrine organ in secreting circulating endogenous TGF-β in inducing myocardial hypertrophy.
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