Downregulation of Survivin contributes to cell-cycle arrest during postnatal cardiac development in a severe spinal muscular atrophy mouse model

Sheng, L., Wan, B., Feng, P., Sun, J., Rigo, F., Bennett, C. F., Akerman, M., Krainer, A. R., Hua, Y. (February 2018) Downregulation of Survivin contributes to cell-cycle arrest during postnatal cardiac development in a severe spinal muscular atrophy mouse model. Hum Mol Genet, 27 (3). pp. 486-498. ISSN 0964-6906

URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29220503
DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddx418

Abstract

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the leading genetic cause of infant mortality, characterized by progressive degeneration of spinal-cord motor neurons, leading to atrophy of skeletal muscles. However, accumulating evidence indicates that it is a multi-system disorder, particularly in its severe forms. Several studies delineated structural and functional cardiac abnormalities in SMA patients and mouse models, yet the abnormalities have been primarily attributed to autonomic dysfunction. Here, we show in a severe mouse model that its cardiomyocytes undergo G0/G1 cell-cycle arrest and enhanced apoptosis during postnatal development. Microarray and real-time RT-PCR analyses revealed that a set of genes associated with cell cycle and apoptosis were dysregulated in newborn pups. Of particular interest, the Birc5 gene, which encodes Survivin, an essential protein for heart development, was down-regulated even on pre-symptomatic postnatal day 0. Interestingly, cultured cardiomyocytes depleted of SMN recapitulated the gene expression changes including downregulation of Survivin and abnormal cell-cycle progression; and overexpression of Survivin rescued the cell-cycle defect. Finally, increasing SMN in SMA mice with a therapeutic antisense oligonucleotide improved heart pathology and recovered expression of deregulated genes. Collectively, our data demonstrate that the cardiac malfunction of the severe SMA mouse model is mainly a cell-autonomous defect, caused by widespread gene deregulation in heart tissue, particularly of Birc5, resulting in developmental abnormalities through cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis.

Item Type: Paper
Subjects: organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell functions > cell cycle
diseases & disorders > congenital hereditary genetic diseases > spinal muscular atrophy
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Krainer lab
Depositing User: Matt Covey
Date: 1 February 2018
Date Deposited: 14 Dec 2017 17:46
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2023 18:21
PMCID: PMC5886172
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/35720

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