Role of Scl39a13/ZIP13 in cardiovascular homeostasis

PLoS One. 2022 Oct 21;17(10):e0276452. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0276452. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Zinc plays a critical role in many physiological processes, and disruption of zinc homeostasis induces various disorders, such as growth retardation, osteopenia, immune deficiency, and inflammation. However, how the imbalance in zinc homeostasis leads to heart disease is not yet fully understood. Cardiovascular diseases are a major cause of death worldwide, and the development of novel therapeutic targets to treat it is urgently needed. We report that a zinc transporter, ZIP13, regulates cardiovascular homeostasis. We found that the expression level of Zip13 mRNA was diminished in both primary neonatal cardiomyocytes and mouse heart tissues treated with the cardiotoxic agent doxycycline. Primary neonatal cardiomyocytes from Zip13 gene-knockout (KO) mice exhibited abnormal irregular arrhythmic beating. RNA-seq analysis identified 606 differentially expressed genes in Zip13-KO mouse-derived primary neonatal cardiomyocytes and Gene ontology (GO) analysis revealed that both inflammation- and cell adhesion-related genes were significantly enriched. In addition, telemetry echocardiography analysis suggested that arrhythmias were likely to occur in Zip13-KO mice, in which elevated levels of the cardiac fibrosis marker Col1a1, vascular inflammation-related gene eNOS, and Golgi-related molecule GM130 were observed. These results indicate the physiological importance of ZIP13-it maintains cardiovascular homeostasis by resolving inflammation and stress response. Our findings suggest that optimizing ZIP13 expression and/or function may improve cardiovascular disease management.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cardiotoxins
  • Cation Transport Proteins* / genetics
  • Doxycycline
  • Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome* / genetics
  • Homeostasis
  • Inflammation
  • Mice
  • Mice, Knockout
  • RNA, Messenger
  • Zinc / metabolism

Substances

  • Cation Transport Proteins
  • Cardiotoxins
  • Doxycycline
  • Zinc
  • RNA, Messenger

Grants and funding

This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Number 20H03409), research grant of the Princess Takamatsu Cancer Research Fund, SECOM Science and Technology Foundation, Terumo Life Science Foundation, The Uehara Memorial Foundation (to T. F.), and by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Number JP18K06711) (to T. H.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.