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Androgens in cardiac hypertrophy

Subject Area Cardiology, Angiology
Term from 2008 to 2015
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 60843499
 
Final Report Year 2017

Final Report Abstract

In this project we generated novel rodent models to characterize the functions of androgens in cardiovascular diseases. Mice which lack the androgen receptor (AR) specifically in all cardi- omyocytes could not be established because the two Cre-recombinase expressing mouse strains we employed for this purpose either did not express in all cardiomyocytes or expressed in too many other cell types. However, we could establish mice lacking AR in macrophages and are analyzing these animals for cardiovascular phenotypes. Moreover, transgenic rats overexpressing AR specifically in cardiomyocytes, TGR(MLC2AR) could be generated. These animals developed sex-specific alterations in cardiac rhythm. Telemetric electrocardi- ography (ECG) revealed a shortened QTc interval in female transgenic rats and a prolonged one in males compared to control animals. Transcriptome analysis of hearts from male and female TGR(MLC2AR) rats by next generation sequencing detected the inward rectifying potassium channel, KCNK1, as being over expressed only in male transgenic rats but not in females rendering it a good candidate responsible for the observed alterations in theECG. In parallel, a technology was established to assess rapid non-genomic signaling of androgens in cardiomyocyte like cells. ERK1/2 phosphorylation was time- and dose-dependently in- creased in AC16 cells by treatment with the androgen dihydrotestosterone. This method needs to be further optimized to be used in a high-throughput assay for the discovery of proteins involved in rapid androgen signaling incardiomyocytes.

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