《Humanmyxomatousmitralvalveprolapseroleofbonemorphogeneticprotein4invalvularinterstitial.docVIP

Human Myxomatous Mitral Valve Prolapse: Role of Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4 in valvular interstitial cell activation Rachana Sainger,1?Juan B. Grau,2?Emanuela Branchetti,1?Paolo Poggio,1,3?William F. Seefried,1?Benjamin C. Field,1Michael A. Acker,1?Robert C. Gorman,1?Joseph H. Gorman, III,1?Clark W. Hargrove, III,1?Joseph E. Bavaria,1?andGiovanni Ferrari1,* Author information???Copyright and License information?? The publishers final edited version of this article is available at?J Cell Physiol See other articles in PMC that?cite?the published article. Go to: Abstract Myxomatous Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is the most common cardiac valvular abnormality in industrialized countries and a leading cause of mitral valve surgery for isolated mitral regurgitation. The key role of valvular interstitial cells (VICs) during mitral valve development and homeostasis has been recently suggested, however little is known about the molecular pathways leading to MVP. We aim to characterize Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4 (BMP4) as a cellular regulator of mitral valvular interstitial cell activation towards a pathologic synthetic phenotype and to analyze the cellular phenotypic changes and extracellular matrix (ECM) reorganization associated with the development of myxomatous mitral valve prolapse. Microarray analysis showed significant up regulation of BMP4-mediated signaling molecules in myxomatous MVP when compared to controls. Histological analysis and cellular characterization suggest that during myxomatous MVP development, healthy quiescent mitral VICs undergo a phenotypic activation via up regulation of BMP4-mediated pathway.?In vitro?hBMP4 treatment of isolated human mitral VICs mimics the cellular activation and ECM remodeling as seen in MVP tissues. The present study characterizes the cell biology of mitral VICs in physiological and pathological conditions and provides insights into the molecular and cellular mechanisms mediated by BMP4 during MVP. The ability to test and co