Neuregulin in Cardiac Hypertrophy in Rats With Aortic Stenosis

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Abstract
Background—Neuregulins are a family of peptide growth factors that promote cell growth and viability. The potential role of neuregulin-erbB signaling in hypertrophic growth and later failure in the adult heart in vivo is not known. Methods and Results—We used ribonuclease protection assays to quantify mRNA levels of neuregulin, erbB2, and erbB4 in left ventricular (LV) tissue and myocytes of normal rats and rats with aortic stenosis with pressure-overload hypertrophy 6 and 22 weeks after banding. At both stages of hypertrophy, Northern blot analyses of mRNA from LV myocytes showed upregulation of atrial natriuretic peptide, a molecular marker of hypertrophy (PP=NS) and were not detectable in myocytes. LV erbB2 and erbB4 message levels in LV tissue and myocytes were maintained during early compensatory hypertrophy in 6-week aortic stenosis animals compared with age-matched controls; in contrast, erbB2 and erbB4 message levels were depressed in 22-week aortic stenosis animals at the stage of early failure (both PPPConclusions—The neuregulin receptors erbB2 and erbB4 are downregulated at both the message and protein levels at the stage of early failure in animals with chronic hypertrophy secondary to aortic stenosis. These data suggest a role for disabled erbB receptor signaling in the transition from compensatory hypertrophy to failure.