Cardiomyocyte-Specific Transgenic Expression of Prolyl-4-Hydroxylase Domain 3 Impairs the Myocardial Response to Ischemia.

Aims: The prolyl-4-hydroxylase domain (PHD) enzymes are representing novel therapeutic targets for ischemic tissue protection. Whereas the consequences of a knock out of the PHDs have been analyzed in the context of cardioprotection, the implications of PHD overexpression is unknown so far.

Methods And Results: We generated cardiomyocyte-specific PHD3transgenic mice (cPhd3tg).

Pre- and post-conditional inhibition of prolyl-4-hydroxylase domain enzymes protects the heart from an ischemic insult.

Several genetically modified mouse models implicated that prolyl-4-hydroxylase domain (PHD) enzymes are critical mediators for protecting tissues from an ischemic insult including myocardial infarction by affecting the stability and activation of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1 and HIF-2. Thus, the current efforts to develop small-molecule PHD inhibitors open a new therapeutic option for myocardial tissue protection during ischemia. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the applicability and efficacy of pharmacological HIFα stabilization by a small-molecule PHD inhibitor in the heart.

Lights on for HIF-1α: genetically enhanced mouse cardiomyocytes for heart tissue imaging.

Background/aims: The hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) is a suitable marker for tissue oxygenation. We intended to develop cardiomyocytes (CMs) expressing the oxygen-dependent degradation domain of HIF-1α fused to the firefly luciferase (ODD-Luc) followed by proof-of-concept for its applicability in the assessment of heart muscle oxygenation.

Methods And Results: We first generated embryonic stem cell (ESC) lines (ODD-Luc ESCs) from a Tg ROSA26 ODD-Luc/+ mouse.