Our Latest Work Published in Circulation
We are thrilled to announce the publication of our latest research, "YAP Overcomes Mechanical Barriers to Induce Mitotic Rounding and Adult Cardiomyocyte Division," in Circulation, a leading journal in cardiovascular science. In this study led by Dr. Yuka Morikawa, we investigated the potential of YAP to induce cell division in adult cardiomyocytes, which has important implications for cardiac regeneration.
Yuka Morikawa, PhD, the study's lead author.
What did we discover?
This study focused on the Hippo signaling pathway effector YAP, which is known to promote cardiomyocyte proliferation. We found that in transgenic mice with an active form of YAP (YAP5SA), cardiomyocytes re-enter the cell cycle at the G1/S transition and have an extended S phase. Interestingly, we discovered that sarcomere disassembly is necessary for cardiomyocyte progression from S phase to G2 phase and the initiation of mitotic rounding. As YAP5SA cardiomyocytes inefficiently progress through G2 phase, we observed that inhibiting P21 function improves G2 phase progression, suggesting that checkpoint activity represents another hurdle for YAP5SA-induced cardiomyocyte division.
Why is this important?
The adult mammalian heart has a limited capacity for self-repair following injury. Our findings provide new insights into the mechanisms that regulate cardiomyocyte proliferation and could pave the way for novel therapeutic strategies to promote cardiac regeneration after heart attack or other forms of heart damage. All authors of this study are Martin Lab members (current and former), and we are proud to share our findings with the scientific community. We believe this work holds significant promise for advancing our understanding of heart regeneration and developing new heart disease treatments.
Stay tuned for future updates!
We will continue exploring YAP's potential in cardiomyocyte proliferation and its therapeutic implications in future studies. We are excited to share our progress and look forward to updating you on our ongoing research. In the meantime, we encourage you to read the full paper for a more detailed account of our findings.