The Oxygen Rich Postnatal Environment Induces Cardiomyocyte Cell Cycle Arrest Through DNA Damage Response

By Bao N Puente, Wataru Kimura, Shalini A. Muralidhar, Jesung Moon, J. Amatruda, Kate L. Phelps, D. Grinsfelder, B. Rothermel, R. Chen, Joseph A Garcia and 15 more. Cell, 2014

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Summary The mammalian heart has a remarkable regenerative capacity for a short period of time after birth, after which the majority of cardiomyocytes permanently exit cell cycle. We sought to determine the primary post-natal event that results in cardiomyocyte cell-cycle arrest. We hypothesized that transition to the oxygen rich postnatal environment is the upstream signal that results in cell cycle arrest of cardiomyocytes. Here we show that reactive oxygen species (ROS), oxidative DNA damage, and DNA damage response (DDR) markers significantly increase in the heart during the first postnatal week. Intriguingly, postnatal hypoxemia, ROS scavenging, or inhibition of DDR all prolong the postnatal proliferative window of cardiomyocytes, while hyperoxemia and ROS generators shorten it. These findings uncover a previously unrecognized protective mechanism that mediates cardiomyocyte cell cycle arrest in exchange for utilization of oxygen dependent aerobic metabolism. Reduction of mitochondrial-dependent oxidative stress should be important component of cardiomyocyte proliferation-based therapeutic approaches.

Subfields: Molecular Biology, Surgery

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fb5c3574e175832f438a20dcd6cd47a517648dad