Differential regulation of CASZ1 protein expression during cardiac and skeletal muscle development

Abstract

Background The zinc-finger transcription factor CASZ1 is required for differentiation of a distinct population of cardiomyocytes during development. However, expression of Casz1 mRNA is detected throughout the developing heart, suggesting the spatial regulation of CASZ1 occurs at the protein level. Relatively little is known about posttranscriptional regulation of Casz1 in the heart. Results We generated antibodies that specifically recognize CASZ1 in developing Xenopus embryos, and performed immunofluorescence analysis of CASZ1 during cardiac development. CASZ1 was detected throughout the developing myocardium. CASZ1 was restricted to terminally differentiated cardiomyocytes, and was down-regulated in cells that re-enter the cell cycle. We determined that CASZ1 expression correlated with terminal differentiation in cardiac muscle cells, skeletal muscle cells, and lymph-heart musculature. Conclusions This study indicates that spatially distinct expression of CASZ1 protein may be due to posttranscriptional control of Casz1 mRNA during cardiac development. The results of this study provide insights into the role of Casz1 in cardiac function and in the differentiation of other cell types, including skeletal muscle and lymph heart.

Congenital heart disease protein 5 associates with CASZ1 to maintain myocardial tissue integrity

“…S3). Since it has been established in published studies that CASZ1 is expressed in the myocardium (Christine and Conlon, 2008;Amin et al, 2014), these findings demonstrate that CHD5 and CASZ1 are co-expressed within the developing myocardium and physically associate.…”

“…Z-stacks taken with MyZen software were imported to Imaris x64 6.1.5 software (Bitplane) for 3D rendering and isosurfacing at the University of North Carolina Microscopy Services Lab as previously described (Doherty et al, 2010). Sectioned antibody staining was performed with rabbit anti-CHD5 (Sigma, HPA018527, 1:100), guinea pig anti-CASZ1 (1:500) (Amin et al, 2014), mouse anti-ZO-1 (Invitrogen, 33-9100, 1:100), rabbit anti-laminin (Sigma, L9393, 1:100), rabbit anti-phospho-histone H3 (Millipore, 06-570, 1:100), rabbit anti-caspase 3 (Cell Signaling, 9661, 1:50), Alexa 647 donkey anti-rabbit (Invitrogen, A-31573, 1:1000), Alexa 546 donkey anti-mouse (Invitrogen, A10036, 1:250), Alexa 488 donkey anti-mouse IgG (H+L; Invitrogen, A-21202, 1:1000) and Cy3 donkey anti-guinea pig (Jackson ImmunoResearch,1:500). Stained sections were imaged on BX61 fluorescence microscope or Zeiss 700 confocal microscope, and ImageJ was used for analysis and cell counts.…”

Relationship of DNA Methylation and Gene Expression in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

“…CASZ1 plays a role in the development of cardiac and skeletal muscle (56) and blood vessel formation (57). It promotes vascular assembly and morphogenesis by binding to an intronic element in EGFL7 (57), a secreted angiogenic factor that binds to ECM, and has a putative role in Notch signaling (58).…”

Zinc finger transcription factor Casz1 expression is regulated by homeodomain transcription factor Prrxl1 in embryonic spinal dorsal horn late‐born excitatory interneurons

“…In mouse retinal progenitors, Casz1 is also implicated in the regulation of temporal progression through a conserved transcriptional cascade as in fly neuroblasts (Mattar et al ., ). It was also shown that Casz1 is expressed in mouse DRG and spinal cord (Amin et al ., ; Liu et al ., ; Mattar et al ., ), although neither its spatiotemporal expression pattern nor its function has been addressed. In the present study, we characterize neuronal populations expressing Casz1 along mouse DRG and dorsal spinal cord development.…”