VGLL4 plays a critical role in heart valve development and homeostasis

PLoS Genet. 2019 Feb 21;15(2):e1007977. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1007977. eCollection 2019 Feb.

Abstract

Heart valve disease is a major clinical problem worldwide. Cardiac valve development and homeostasis need to be precisely controlled. Hippo signaling is essential for organ development and tissue homeostasis, while its role in valve formation and morphology maintenance remains unknown. VGLL4 is a transcription cofactor in vertebrates and we found it was mainly expressed in valve interstitial cells at the post-EMT stage and was maintained till the adult stage. Tissue specific knockout of VGLL4 in different cell lineages revealed that only loss of VGLL4 in endothelial cell lineage led to valve malformation with expanded expression of YAP targets. We further semi-knockout YAP in VGLL4 ablated hearts, and found hyper proliferation of arterial valve interstitial cells was significantly constrained. These findings suggest that VGLL4 is important for valve development and manipulation of Hippo components would be a potential therapy for preventing the progression of congenital valve disease.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Lineage
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Endothelial Cells / cytology*
  • Endothelial Cells / metabolism
  • Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
  • Gene Knockout Techniques
  • Heart Valves / cytology
  • Heart Valves / growth & development*
  • Heart Valves / metabolism
  • Hippo Signaling Pathway
  • Homeostasis
  • Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / genetics*
  • Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / veterinary
  • Mice
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / metabolism
  • Signal Transduction
  • Transcription Factors / genetics*
  • Transcription Factors / metabolism*

Substances

  • Transcription Factors
  • VGLL4 protein, mouse
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases