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  • Growth Factor Expression by...
    Jacyniak, Kathy; Vickaryous, Matthew Kenneth

    The FASEB journal, April 2018, 2018-04-00, Letnik: 32, Številka: S1
    Journal Article

    Tissue homeostasis is a dynamic process involved in the maintenance of tissue structure and function in response to physiological fluctuations in biochemistry, metabolism, and physical conditions. Despite the profound role that growth factors play in homeostasis of organs such as the heart, constitutive patterns of expression are only known for a handful of species. Here, we investigated growth factor expression in the heart of a representative reptile, the leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius; hereafter, ‘gecko’). We focused our investigation on three major classes known to be expressed by mammalian cardiac tissues: transforming growth factor β (TGFβ); vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF); and basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF‐2). Similar to other squamates (snakes and lizards), geckos have a three‐chambered heart with two atria and one ventricle. The ventricular myocardium includes a trabeculated or spongy‐like inner compartment, and a thin, compact cortical layer. We determined that cardiac cells in both compartments of the gecko myocardium (trabeculated and compact) constitutively express a diverse panel of growth factor ligands and receptors commonly associated with wound healing and repair, including: TGFβ1, activin‐βA, and phosphorylated SMAD2; FGF‐2; and VEGF, VEGF receptor 1 (VEFGR1), VEGFR2, and phosphorylated VEGFR2. Using double immunofluorescence, we observed co‐localization of VEGF/VEGFR2 and VEGFR1/VEGFR2, indicating that – similar to mammals – reptilian cardiomyocytes may use paracrine and autocrine signalling. Taken together, these findings indicate a homeostatic role for these growth factors in the heart that is conserved across reptiles and mammals. Support or Funding Information Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grant 400358 (to MV); Ontario Veterinary College Scholarship (to KJ) This is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this published in The FASEB Journal.