Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex related genes are differentially expressed between neonatal and adult cardiomyocytes

• In Event: Poster Presentation and Judging for: Biomedical; Cell & Molecular Biology; Chemistry & Biochemistry; Marine Science; Systematics & Evolutionary Biology.
  In Poster Session: Cell & Molecular Biology Poster session

Abstract

Neonatal mice can regenerate their hearts following various types of injury, challenging the concept that mammalian hearts cannot undergo significant regeneration. Understanding differences in metabolism related gene expression between neonatal and adult mice could reveal a role in their regenerative capacity. The Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC) is responsible for converting pyruvate to acetyl-coA.The inhibition of PDC results in the heart relying mainly on fatty acids instead of glucose as its primary energy source, which can lead into cardiomyocyte cell cycle exit because of oxidative DNA damage. A recent publication generated a readily available large gene expression data set of various cell types isolated from non-infarcted and infarcted neonatal and adult mice hearts. The goal of this research was to use bioinformatics tools to study the expression of genes related to the PDC in neonatal and adult mice cardiomyocytes. The expression of genes involved in the PDC were obtained from a list of differentially expressed genes in neonatal and adult mice with or without myocardial infarction. Mined data was used in PathVisio software to illustrate a pathway that displays PDC related genes that were significantly up- or down-regulated in the data set. While there was little change in the expression of PDC related genes between non-infarcted and infarcted hearts, significant differences were detected when comparing PDC related gene expression between neonatal and adult mice. These findings suggest the involvement of PDC regulation in heart regeneration.

Authors

• Emily L Ensley, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

• Joni H Ylostalo, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor