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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 285/6/H2471    most recent 00362.2003v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (8) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Eigenthaler, M. Articles by Hein, L. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Eigenthaler, M. Articles by Hein, L.

Disruption of cardiac Ena-VASP protein localization in intercalated disks causes dilated cardiomyopathy

¹Institut für Klinische Biochemie und Pathobiochemie, ²Institut für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, and ³Institut für Anatomie, Universität Würzburg, 97078 Würzburg; and ⁴Institut für Pathologie der Charite, 10117 Berlin, Germany

Submitted 17 April 2003 ; accepted in final form 18 August 2003

Vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) and mammalian enabled (Mena) are actin cytoskeleton and signaling modulators. Ena-VASP proteins share an identical domain organization with an NH₂-terminal Ena VASP homology (EVH1) domain, which mediates the binding of these proteins to FPPPP-motif containing partners such as zyxin and vinculin. VASP and Mena are abundantly expressed in the heart. However, previous studies showed that disruption by gene targeting of VASP or Mena genes in mice did not reveal any cardiac phenotype, whereas mice lacking both VASP and Mena died during embryonic development. To determine the in vivo function of Ena-VASP proteins in the heart, we used a dominant negative strategy with cardiac-specific expression of the VASP-EVH1 domain. Transgenic mice with cardiac myocyte-restricted, -myosin heavy chain promoter-directed expression of the VASP-EVH1 domain were generated. Overexpression of the EVH1 domain resulted in specific displacement of both VASP and Mena from cardiac intercalated disks. VASP-EVH1 transgenic mice developed dilated cardiomyopathy with myocyte hypertrophy and bradycardia, which resulted in early postnatal lethality in mice with high levels of transgene expression. The results demonstrate that Ena-VASP proteins may play an important role in intercalated disk function at the interface between cardiac myocytes.

transgenic mice; hypertrophy; arrhythmia

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