Blockade of MyD88 attenuates cardiac hypertrophy and decreases cardiac myocyte apoptosis in pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy in vivo

Departments of 1 Surgery and 3 Internal Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee; 2 Animal Model Research Center, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China; and Department of 4 Physiology and Biophysics, Howard University, Washington DC Submitted 6 July 2005 ; accepted in final form 23 September 2005 In this study, we evaluated whether blocking myeloid differentiation factor-88 (MyD88) could decrease cardiac myocyte apoptosis following pressure overload. Adenovirus expressing dominant negative MyD88 (Ad5-dnMyD88) or Ad5-green fluorescent protein (GFP) (Ad5-GFP) was transfected into rat hearts ( n = 8/group) immediately followed by aortic banding for 3 wk. One group of rats ( n = 8) was subjected to aortic banding for 3 wk without transfection. Sham surgical operation ( n = 8) served as control. The ratios of heart weight to body weight (HW/BW) and heart weight to tibia length (HW/TL) were calculated. Cardiomyocyte size was examined by FITC-labeled wheat germ agglutinin staining of membranes. Cardiac myocyte apoptosis was determined by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling assay, and myocardial interstitial fibrosis was examined by Masson's Trichrome staining. Aortic banding significantly increased the HW/BW by 41.0% (0.44 ± 0.013 vs. 0.31 ± 0.008), HW/TL by 47.2% (42.7 ± 1.30 vs. 29.0 ± 0.69), cardiac myocyte size by 49.6%, and cardiac myocyte apoptosis by 11.5%, and myocardial fibrosis and decreased cardiac function compared with sham controls. Transfection of Ad5-dnMyD88 significantly reduced the HW/BW by 18.2% (0.36 ± 0.006 vs. 0.44 ± 0.013) and HW/TL by 22.3% (33.2 ± 0.95 vs. 42.7 ± 1.30) and decreased cardiomyocyte size by 56.8%, cardiac myocyte apoptosis by 76.2%, as well as fibrosis, and improved cardiac function compared with aortic-banded group. Our results suggest that MyD88 is an important component in the Toll-like receptor-4-mediated nuclear factor- B activation pathway that contributes to the development of cardiac hypertrophy. Blockade of MyD88 significantly reduced cardiac hypertrophy, cardiac myocyte apoptosis, and improved cardiac function in vivo. dominant negative myeloid differentiation factor-88; nuclear factor- B; signal transduction Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: C. Li, Dept. of Surgery, East Tennessee State Univ., Campus Box 70575, Johnson City, TN 37614-0575 (e-mail: Li{at}ETSU.EDU )