Rationale:
Myocardial infarction (MI) leads to necrosis of multinucleated and polyploid myocytes. This causes uncontrolled release of cellular content like chromatin to the infarct area. Chromatin is mainly comprised of histones which are essential for controlling and packing of DNA but paradoxically are also known to be cytotoxic. This makes free chromatin a toxic DNA polymer creating local high concentrations of hazardous histones.
Objective:
We hypothesized that chromatin from necrotic cells accumulates in ischemic myocardium, creates local high concentrations of cytotoxic histones, and thereby potentiates ischemic damage to the heart after MI. The endonuclease DNase1 is capable of dispersing extracellular chromatin through linker DNA digestion and could decrease local histone concentrations and cytotoxicity.
Methods and Results:
After permanent coronary artery ligation in mice we found extracellular histones accumulated within the infarcted myocardium. Histone cytotoxicity towards isolated myocytes was confirmed in vitro. To reduce histone related cytotoxicity in vivo DNase1 was injected within the first 6 hours after induction of MI. DNase1 accumulated in the infarcted region of the heart, effectively disrupted extracellular cytotoxic chromatin and thereby reduced high local histone concentration. Animals acutely treated with DNase1 revealed significantly improved left ventricular remodeling as measured by serial echocardiography up to 28 days after MI (e.g. NaCl vs DNase1, papillary end diastolic area [mm
2
]: 23.26 ± 2.06 vs 18.90 ± 1.24, n=9 vs 10, p<0,05). Treatment did not influence mortality, infarct size or inflammatory parameters as determined by neutrophil infiltration and RTQ-PCR analysis of characteristic cytokines. However improved myocyte survival was discovered within the infarct region which might account for the protective effects in DNase1 treated animals (NaCl vs DNase1: 3.0 ± 0.7% vs 8.3 ± 2.3%; p<0.05; n=7 vs 8).
Conclusions:
Targeting extracellular cytotoxic chromatin within the infarcted heart by DNase1 is a promising approach to preserve myocytes from histone induced cell death and to conserve left ventricular function after MI. The efficacy of other chromatin degrading agents is now under investigation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.