Key result
Ablation of a transient proliferative population of Periostin-expressing cardiac fibroblasts in neonatal mice reduced cardiomyocyte binucleation from 70% to 50% and impaired hypertrophic growth.
Why the study?
During the postnatal period, the heart undergoes cardiomyocyte cell-cycle arrest and loss of regenerative capacity, but information related to postnatal cardiac fibroblasts is limited.
Absolute Event Rate: 50% vs 70%
A transient population of highly proliferative Periostin-expressing cardiac fibroblasts in the early postnatal heart is critical for cardiomyocyte maturation and sympathetic innervation.
Supports fibroblast-cardiomyocyte interactions in neonatal mouse maturation; leaves open relevance to human heart development or repair.
Significance During the postnatal period, the heart undergoes important changes, including cardiomyocyte cell-cycle arrest and loss of regenerative capacity. While other cell types have been better characterized, the information related to postnatal cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) is limited. Here, we report a specialized population of highly proliferative periostin-expressing (Postn+) fibroblasts in the early postnatal heart that become quiescent at P30. In comparison, P7 Tcf21+ fibroblasts have distinct gene expression from Postn+ CFs. Notably, Postn+ CFs express proliferation and neuronal-related genes, while Tcf21+ CFs preferentially express extracellular-matrix–related genes. Ablation of Postn+ cells leads to reduced cardiomyocyte growth, mitotic activity, and binucleation with increased sympathetic nerve area. Thus Postn+ cells represent a specialized developmental CF population critical for postnatal cardiac maturation.
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Hortells et al. (2020) studied Postnatal heart development. Ablation of Postn+ cardiac fibroblasts vs. Control mice without ablation was evaluated on Cardiomyocyte binucleation at postnatal day 7. Ablation of a transient proliferative population of Periostin-expressing cardiac fibroblasts in neonatal mice reduced cardiomyocyte binucleation from 70% to 50% and impaired hypertrophic growth.
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