TY  - JOUR
A1  - Biermann, Daniel
A1  - Heilmann, Andreas
A1  - Didié, Michael
A1  - Schlossarek, Saskia
A1  - Wahab, Azadeh
A1  - Grimm, Michael
A1  - Römer, Maria
A1  - Reichenspurner, Hermann
A1  - Sultan, Karim R.
A1  - Steenpass, Anna
A1  - Ergün, Süleyman
A1  - Donzelli, Sonia
A1  - Carrier, Lucie
A1  - Ehmke, Heimo
A1  - Zimmermann, Wolfram H.
A1  - Hein, Lutz
A1  - Böger, Rainer H.
A1  - Benndorf, Ralf A.
T1  - Impact of AT2 Receptor Deficiency on Postnatal Cardiovascular Development
JF  - PLoS One
N2  - Background: The angiotensin II receptor subtype 2 (AT2 receptor) is ubiquitously and highly expressed in early postnatal life. However, its role in postnatal cardiac development remained unclear. 
Methodology/Principal Findings: Hearts from 1, 7, 14 and 56 days old wild-type (WT) and AT2 receptor-deficient (KO) mice were extracted for histomorphometrical analysis as well as analysis of cardiac signaling and gene expression. Furthermore, heart and body weights of examined animals were recorded and echocardiographic analysis of cardiac function as well as telemetric blood pressure measurements were performed. Moreover, gene expression, sarcomere shortening and calcium transients were examined in ventricular cardiomyocytes isolated from both genotypes. KO mice exhibited an accelerated body weight gain and a reduced heart to body weight ratio as compared to WT mice in the postnatal period. However, in adult KO mice the heart to body weight ratio was significantly increased most likely due to elevated systemic blood pressure. At postnatal day 7 ventricular capillarization index and the density of \(\alpha\)-smooth muscle cell actin-positive blood vessels were higher in KO mice as compared to WT mice but normalized during adolescence. Echocardiographic assessment of cardiac systolic function at postnatal day 7 revealed decreased contractility of KO hearts in response to beta-adrenergic stimulation. Moreover, cardiomyocytes from KO mice showed a decreased sarcomere shortening and an increased peak Ca\(^{2+}\) transient in response to isoprenaline when stimulated concomitantly with angiotensin II. 
Conclusion: The AT2 receptor affects postnatal cardiac growth possibly via reducing body weight gain and systemic blood pressure. Moreover, it moderately attenuates postnatal vascularization of the heart and modulates the beta adrenergic response of the neonatal heart. These AT2 receptor-mediated effects may be implicated in the physiological maturation process of the heart.
KW  - mice
KW  - II type-2 receptor
KW  - human endothelial cells
KW  - chronic kidney disease
KW  - angiotensin II
KW  - blood pressure
KW  - in vitro
KW  - cardiac hyperthrophy
KW  - tube formation
KW  - rat heart
Y1  - 2012
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-134902
VL  - 7
IS  - 10
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ahmad, Ruhel
A1  - Wolber, Wanja
A1  - Eckardt, Sigrid
A1  - Koch, Philipp
A1  - Schmitt, Jessica
A1  - Semechkin, Ruslan
A1  - Geis, Christian
A1  - Heckmann, Manfred
A1  - Brüstle, Oliver
A1  - McLaughlin, John K.
A1  - Sirén, Anna-Leena
A1  - Müller, Albrecht M.
T1  - Functional Neuronal Cells Generated by Human Parthenogenetic Stem Cells
JF  - PLoS One
N2  - Parent of origin imprints on the genome have been implicated in the regulation of neural cell type differentiation. The ability of human parthenogenetic (PG) embryonic stem cells (hpESCs) to undergo neural lineage and cell type-specific differentiation is undefined. We determined the potential of hpESCs to differentiate into various neural subtypes. Concurrently, we examined DNA methylation and expression status of imprinted genes. Under culture conditions promoting neural differentiation, hpESC-derived neural stem cells (hpNSCs) gave rise to glia and neuron-like cells that expressed subtype-specific markers and generated action potentials. Analysis of imprinting in hpESCs and in hpNSCs revealed that maternal-specific gene expression patterns and imprinting marks were generally maintained in PG cells upon differentiation. Our results demonstrate that despite the lack of a paternal genome, hpESCs generate proliferating NSCs that are capable of differentiation into physiologically functional neuron-like cells and maintain allele-specific expression of imprinted genes. Thus, hpESCs can serve as a model to study the role of maternal and paternal genomes in neural development and to better understand imprinting-associated brain diseases.
KW  - methylation
KW  - derivation
KW  - blastocysts
KW  - pluripotent
KW  - differentiation
KW  - lines
KW  - brain development
KW  - in-vitro
KW  - mice
KW  - specification
Y1  - 2012
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-130268
VL  - 7
IS  - 8
ER  -