Dysregulated HIF-1α expression may contribute to cardiac dysfunction

21. 06. 2019

The sympathetic nervous system plays a critical role in stimulating heart rate and contractility to increase cardiac output and thereby insure adequate tissue O2 delivery. Altered sympathetic output contributes to cardiac pathologies, such as sudden cardiac death ...

... and heart failure. Czech scientists in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine provide insight into the role of the transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) in the development of sympathetic ganglion neurons and cardiac sympathetic innervation. We found that conditional deletion of HIF-1α (Hif1aCKO) resulted in increased cell death and decreased proliferation of neuronal progenitors of the sympathetic system. These findings suggest that dysregulated HIF-1α expression may contribute to cardiac dysfunction and disease associated with defects in the cardiac sympathetic system by affecting the function and survival of sympathetic neurons.

Publication:

Romana Bohuslavova, Radka Cerychova, Frantisek Papousek, Veronika Olejnickova, Martin Bartos, Agnes Görlach, Frantisek Kolar, David Sedmera, Gregg L. Semenza, and Gabriela Pavlinkova. HIF-1α is required for development of the sympathetic nervous system. PNAS first published June 13, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.190351011.

Impaired sympathetic innervation of Hif1aCKO hearts as shown by

immunostaining of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in the embryonic heart.