Abstract
During postnatal heart development in mice, the ventricular myocardium undergoes extensive remodeling with increased organization and maturation of cardiomyocytes, fibroblasts and endothelial cells. In addition, the extracellular matrix (ECM), consisting mostly of mature fibrillar collagen is produced, providing necessary mechanical support for increased cardiac output. In adult hearts, the matricellular protein periostin (postn) is induced during cardiac injury and is required for collagen deposition in scar formation and pathologic fibrosis. During postnatal heart remodeling, postn also is expressed in cardiac fibroblasts coincident with collagen 1a1 gene expression. At the same time, fibronectin expression indicative of immature ECM permissive for cardiomyocyte proliferation is decreased. By postnatal day 30, postn expression is decreased and the collagen‐rich ECM surrounding individual cardiomyocytes is apparent. The expression of postn during postnatal heart remodeling and ECM maturation supports shared molecular regulation of cardiac fibroblasts and collagen fibrillogenesis in development and disease. However, the specific contributions of postn‐expressing cardiac fibroblasts to the initial production of the collagen‐rich ECM of the heart or to maturation and hypertrophy of adjacent cardiomyocytes are not yet known.Support or Funding InformationThis work was supported by grants from the NIH/NHLBI (P01HL069779 and R01HL142217)This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.
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