Published August 14, 2022 | Version v1
Journal article Open

WT1 transcription factor impairs cardiomyocyte specification and drives a phenotypic switch from myocardium to epicardium

  • 1. 1 Department of Developmental Biology and Regeneration, Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern, Switzerland 2 Department of BioMedical Research (DBMR), University of Bern, Switzerland
  • 2. 1 Department of Developmental Biology and Regeneration, Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern, Switzerland
  • 3. 1 Department of Developmental Biology and Regeneration, Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern, Switzerland 3 Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares CNIC, Madrid, Spain 4 Current address: Molecular Neurobiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
  • 4. 5 Leibniz Institute on Aging-Fritz Lipmann Institute, Jena, Germany
  • 5. 6 Department of Microscopic Anatomy and Structural Biology, Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern, Switzerland
  • 6. 3 Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares CNIC, Madrid, Spain 7 Current address: Department of Anatomy, Histology and Neuroscience, School of Medicine, Autónoma University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • 7. 3 Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares CNIC, Madrid, Spain
  • 8. 2 Department of BioMedical Research (DBMR), University of Bern, Switzerland
  • 9. 8 Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, Oxford University, UK
  • 10. 1 Department of Developmental Biology and Regeneration, Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern, Switzerland 2 Department of BioMedical Research (DBMR), University of Bern, Switzerland 3 Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares CNIC, Madrid, Spain

Description

During development, the heart growths through addition of progenitor cells to the poles of the primordial heart tube.  In the zebrafish, wilms tumor 1 transcription factor a (wt1a) and b (wt1b) are expressed in the pericardium, at the venous pole of the heart. From this pericardial layer, the proepicardium emerges. Proepicardial cells are subsequently transferred to the myocardial surface and form the epicardium, covering the myocardium. We found that while wt1a/b expression is maintained in proepicardial cells, it is downregulated in those pericardial cells contributing to cardiomyocytes from the developing heart. Sustained wt1 expression in cardiomyocytes reduced chromatin accessibility of specific genomic loci. Strikingly, a subset of wt1a/b-expressing cardiomyocytes changed their cell adhesion properties, delaminated from the myocardium and upregulated epicardial gene expression. Thus, wt1 acts as a break for cardiomyocyte differentiation and ectopic wt1 expression in cardiomyocytes can lead to their transdifferentiation into epicardial like cells.

Files

Files (7.2 GB)

Name Size Download all
md5:0aec8ad53dc56366b7b9893f5bf50ab4
15.4 kB Download
md5:f95072547066a043e4fb5987fd92bffe
134.2 kB Download
md5:f90f5e2d7c18d0af110a819b6df8f5c4
542.7 MB Download
md5:3411b4e34ea45a8ad7310974607c728f
415.5 MB Download
md5:43cebd0c62aa35dd9c158740b79274cb
86.7 kB Download
md5:361070fdcaa336eddb2fdd6bfee432f4
50.7 kB Download
md5:83c8c0463682717d5042bfe0788ff289
333.9 MB Download
md5:81415b99f14a031f5bd69741298ce65b
3.4 GB Download
md5:f44f740cb3470846d76b66d7d0a414dc
783.0 MB Download
md5:80d77486cc3a7eacac3c76a54859ba19
1.1 GB Download
md5:46d39be9f5677393ff51ff7bf5c69710
720.6 MB Download
md5:90ae2ea1bec372b986a5ef69288f1255
155.0 kB Download
md5:2729063dd748e2a0098879c48bcea859
10.9 kB Download