451H emodynamic overload and ischemic or oxidative stress promote adverse cardiac remodeling, a leading cause of worsening heart failure.1,2 Most of these pathophysiologic conditions are associated with (and to a certain extent, mediated by) adrenergic stimulation and catecholamines release, resulting in adrenoceptor (AR) activation on different cell types within the myocardium. Among these, cardiac myocyte β1-ARs are classically considered to mediate short-term positive effects on all aspects of myocardial contractility; however, long-term stimulation produces adverse effects on myocardial remodeling, in part through activation of calciumdependent prohypertrophic effects, ultimately associated with cardiomyocyte loss. 3,4 Such maladaptive remodeling is usually accompanied by left ventricle (LV) geometry disruption Background-β1-2-adrenergic receptors (AR) are key regulators of cardiac contractility and remodeling in response to catecholamines. β3-AR expression is enhanced in diseased human myocardium, but its impact on remodeling is unknown. Methods and Results-Mice with cardiac myocyte-specific expression of human β3-AR (β3-TG) and wild-type (WT) littermates were used to compare myocardial remodeling in response to isoproterenol (Iso) or Angiotensin II (Ang II). β3-TG and WT had similar morphometric and hemodynamic parameters at baseline. β3-AR colocalized with caveolin-3, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and neuronal NOS in adult transgenic myocytes, which constitutively produced more cyclic GMP, detected with a new transgenic FRET sensor. Iso and Ang II produced hypertrophy and fibrosis in WT mice, but not in β3-TG mice, which also had less re-expression of fetal genes and transforming growth factor β1.Protection from Iso-induced hypertrophy was reversed by nonspecific NOS inhibition at low dose Iso, and by preferential neuronal NOS inhibition at high-dose Iso. Adenoviral overexpression of β3-AR in isolated cardiac myocytes also increased NO production and attenuated hypertrophy to Iso and phenylephrine. Hypertrophy was restored on NOS or protein kinase G inhibition. Mechanistically, β3-AR overexpression inhibited phenylephrine-induced nuclear factor of activated T-cell activation. Conclusions-Cardiac-specific overexpression of β3-AR does not affect cardiac morphology at baseline but inhibits the hypertrophic response to neurohormonal stimulation in vivo and in vitro, through a NOS-mediated mechanism. Activation of the cardiac β3-AR pathway may provide future therapeutic avenues for the modulation of hypertrophic remodeling. and interstitial and replacement fibrosis leading to progressive diastolic and systolic heart failure. Deciphering the underlying signaling pathways may lead to new therapeutic strategies that favorably modulate remodeling. The use of β1-AR blockers provided a major advance in this direction, albeit far from totally efficient. 5 The third isotype of β-AR (β3-AR) has classically been considered as a metabolic regulator (eg, by mediating lipolysis in the adipose tissue).6 β3-ARs ...

1235 3ʹ,5ʹ-Cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) is one of the ubiquitous second messengers, which is critically involved in the regulation of cardiac contractility and pathological hypertrophy.1,2 In cardiomyocytes, 2 classes of guanylyl cyclases (GCs) are responsible for cGMP synthesis. The first class, particulate GCs (pGCs) represented by GC-A and GC-B, are plasma membrane receptors for atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP), respectively. 3,4 Second, the so-called soluble or NO-sensitive GCs (NO-GCs) are also functionally present in cardiomyocytes.5-7 cGMP levels are negatively regulated by cGMP-hydrolyzing enzymes phosphodiesterases (PDEs) with at least 4 families (PDE1, 2, 3, and 5) expressed in cardiac myocytes, whereby the first 3 PDEs can degrade both cGMP and cAMP. [8][9][10][11] cGMP is generally considered as a cardioprotective second messenger, 12 because pharmacological elevation of cGMP levels either by inhibition of cGMP-hydrolyzing PDE5 and PDE1 or by activation of NO-GC and pGC prevents pathological cardiomyocyte growth in vitro 13 and cardiac remodeling in vivo. 2,14-16In This Issue, see p 1221Reliable cGMP measurements in adult cardiomyocytes have been challenging. 17 In adult heart, cGMP is present at much lower concentrations than cAMP and acts in a compartmentalized New Methods in Cardiovascular Biology© 2014 American Heart Association, Inc. Rationale: 3ʹ,5ʹ-Cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) is an important second messenger that regulates cardiac contractility and protects the heart from hypertrophy. However, because of the lack of real-time imaging techniques, specific subcellular mechanisms and spatiotemporal dynamics of cGMP in adult cardiomyocytes are not well understood.Objective: Our aim was to generate and characterize a novel cGMP sensor model to measure cGMP with nanomolar sensitivity in adult cardiomyocytes. Methods and Results:We generated transgenic mice with cardiomyocyte-specific expression of the highly sensitive cytosolic Förster resonance energy transfer-based cGMP biosensor red cGES-DE5 and performed the first Förster resonance energy transfer measurements of cGMP in intact adult mouse ventricular myocytes. We found very low (≈10 nmol/L) basal cytosolic cGMP levels, which can be markedly increased by natriuretic peptides (C-type natriuretic peptide >> atrial natriuretic peptide) and, to a much smaller extent, by the direct stimulation of soluble guanylyl cyclase. Constitutive activity of this cyclase contributes to basal cGMP production, which is balanced by the activity of clinically established phosphodiesterase (PDE) families. The PDE3 inhibitor, cilostamide, showed especially strong cGMP responses. In a mild model of cardiac hypertrophy after transverse aortic constriction, PDE3 effects were not affected, whereas the contribution of PDE5 was increased. In addition, after natriuretic peptide stimulation, PDE3 was also involved in cGMP/cAMP crosstalk. Conclusions:

A crucial event in female reproduction occurs at midcycle, when a LH peak induces the final maturation of ovarian follicles. LH signals via a G protein-coupled receptor selectively expressed in the outermost follicular cell layers. However, how LH signals are relayed inside these cells and finally to the oocyte is incompletely understood. Here, we monitored LH signaling in intact ovarian follicles of transgenic mice expressing a fluorescent cAMP sensor. We found that LH stimulation induces 2 phases of cAMP signaling in all cell layers surrounding the oocyte. Interfering with LH receptor internalization abolished the second, persistent cAMP phase and partially inhibited oocyte meiosis resumption. These data suggest that persistent cAMP signals from internalized LH receptors contribute to transmitting LH effects inside follicle cells and ultimately to the oocyte. Thus, this study indicates that the recently proposed paradigm of cAMP signaling by internalized G protein-coupled receptors is implicated in receptor function and is physiologically relevant.

Rationale: 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) is a ubiquitous second messenger which, upon β-adrenergic receptor (β-AR) stimulation, acts in microdomains to regulate cardiac excitation-contraction coupling by activating phosphorylation of calcium handling proteins. One crucial microdomain is in vicinity of the cardiac ryanodine receptor type 2 (RyR2) which is associated with arrhythmogenic diastolic calcium leak from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) often occurring in heart failure. Objective: We sought to establish a real time live cell imaging approach capable of directly visualizing cAMP in the vicinity of mouse and human RyR2 and to analyze its pathological changes in failing cardiomyocytes under β-AR stimulation. Methods and Results: We generated a novel targeted fluorescent biosensor Epac1-JNC for RyR2-associated cAMP and expressed it in transgenic mouse hearts as well in human ventricular myocytes using adenoviral gene transfer. In healthy cardiomyocytes, β 1 -AR but not β 2 -AR stimulation strongly increased local RyR2-associated cAMP levels. However, already in cardiac hypertrophy induced by aortic banding, there was a marked subcellular redistribution of phosphodiesterases (PDEs) 2, 3 and 4, which included a dramatic loss of the local pool of PDE4. This was also accompanied by measurableβ2-AR/AMP signals in the vicinity of RyR2 in failing mouse and human myocytes, increased β2-AR-dependent RyR2 phosphorylation, SR calcium leak and arrhythmia susceptibility. Conclusions: Our new imaging approach could visualize cAMP levels in the direct vicinity of cardiac RyR2. Unexpectedly, in mouse and human failing myocytes, it could uncover functionally relevant local arrhythmogenic β2-AR/cAMP signals which might be an interesting antiarrhythmic target for heart failure.

G protein-coupled receptor 3 (GPR3) is a constitutively active receptor that maintains high 3′-5′-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) levels required for meiotic arrest in oocytes and CNS function. Ligand-activated G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) signal at the cell surface and are silenced by phosphorylation and β-arrestin recruitment upon endocytosis. Some GPCRs can also signal from endosomes following internalization. Little is known about the localization, signaling, and regulation of constitutively active GPCRs. We demonstrate herein that exogenously-expressed GPR3 localizes to the cell membrane and undergoes internalization in HEK293 cells. Inhibition of endocytosis increased cell surface-localized GPR3 and cAMP levels while overexpression of GPCR-Kinase 2 (GRK2) and β-arrestin-2 decreased cell surface-localized GPR3 and cAMP levels. GRK2 by itself is sufficient to decrease cAMP production but both GRK2 and β-arrestin-2 are required to decrease cell surface GPR3. GRK2 regulates GPR3 independently of its kinase activity since a kinase inactive GRK2-K220R mutant significantly decreased cAMP levels. However, GRK2-K220R and β-arrestin-2 do not diminish cell surface GPR3, suggesting that phosphorylation is required to induce GPR3 internalization. To understand which residues are targeted for desensitization, we mutated potential phosphorylation sites in the third intracellular loop and C-terminus and examined the effect on cAMP and receptor surface localization. Mutation of residues in the third intracellular loop dramatically increased cAMP levels whereas mutation of residues in the C-terminus produced cAMP levels comparable to GPR3 wild type. Interestingly, both mutations significantly reduced cell surface expression of GPR3. These results demonstrate that GPR3 signals at the plasma membrane and can be silenced by GRK2/β-arrestin overexpression. These results also strongly implicate the serine and/or threonine residues in the third intracellular loop in the regulation of GPR3 activity.

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) microscopy continues to gain increasing interest as a technique for real-time monitoring of biochemical and signaling events in live cells and tissues. Compared to classical biochemical methods, this novel technology is characterized by high temporal and spatial resolution. FRET experiments use various genetically-encoded biosensors which can be expressed and imaged over time in situ or in vivo [1][2] . Typical biosensors can either report protein-protein interactions by measuring FRET between a fluorophore-tagged pair of proteins or conformational changes in a single protein which harbors donor and acceptor fluorophores interconnected with a binding moiety for a molecule of interest [3][4] . Bimolecular biosensors for protein-protein interactions include, for example, constructs designed to monitor G-protein activation in cells 5 , while the unimolecular sensors measuring conformational changes are widely used to image second messengers such as calcium 6 , cAMP [7][8] , inositol phosphates 9 and cGMP [10][11] . Here we describe how to build a customized epifluorescence FRET imaging system from single commercially available components and how to control the whole setup using the Micro-Manager freeware. This simple but powerful instrument is designed for routine or more sophisticated FRET measurements in live cells. Acquired images are processed using self-written plug-ins to visualize changes in FRET ratio in real-time during any experiments before being stored in a graphics format compatible with the build-in ImageJ freeware used for subsequent data analysis. This low-cost system is characterized by high flexibility and can be successfully used to monitor various biochemical events and signaling molecules by a plethora of available FRET biosensors in live cells and tissues. As an example, we demonstrate how to use this imaging system to perform real-time monitoring of cAMP in live 293A cells upon stimulation with a β-adrenergic receptor agonist and blocker.

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based biosensors are powerful tools for real-time monitoring of signaling events in intact cells using fluorescence microscopy. Here, we describe a highly sensitive method which allows FRET-based measurements of the second messenger cGMP in adult mouse ventricular myocytes. Such measurements have been challenging before, primarily due to relatively low cGMP concentrations in cardiomyocytes and limited sensitivity of the available biosensors. With our new technique, one can reliably measure dynamic changes in cGMP upon stimulation of myocytes with natriuretic peptides and other physiological and pharmacological ligands.

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