Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-20-2023

JAX Source

J Cardiovasc Dev Dis. 2023;10(8):355

ISSN

2308-3425

PMID

37623368

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3390/jcdd10080355

Grant

This work was supported by NIH/NHLBI R01HL142685 (JL), Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin #5520519 (J.L.), and the Peter Sommerhauser Endowment Fund for Quality, Outcomes and Research (J.L.). The mass spectrometry work at The Jackson Laboratory utilized instrumentation obtained through the NIH S10 award (S10 OD026816).

Abstract

Organization of extracellular matrix (ECM) components, including collagens, proteoglycans, and elastin, is essential for maintaining the structure and function of heart valves throughout life. Mutations in ECM genes cause connective tissue disorders, including Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI), and progressive debilitating heart valve dysfunction is common in these patients. Despite this, effective treatment options are limited to end-stage interventions. Mice with a homozygous frameshift mutation in col1a2 serve as a murine model of OI (oim/oim), and therefore, they were used in this study to examine the pathobiology of aortic valve (AoV) disease in this patient population at structural, functional, and molecular levels. Temporal echocardiography of oim/oim mice revealed AoV dysfunction by the late stages of disease in 12-month-old mice. However, structural and proteomic changes were apparent much earlier, at 3 months of age, and were associated with disturbances in ECM homeostasis primarily related to collagen and proteoglycan abnormalities and disorganization. Together, findings from this study provide insights into the underpinnings of late onset AoV dysfunction in connective tissue disease patients that can be used for the development of mechanistic-based therapies administered early to halt progression, thereby avoiding late-stage surgical intervention.

Comments

© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

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