Cytoplasmic translocation of HuR contributes to angiotensin II induced cardiac fibrosis

Abstract Cardiac fibrosis is one of the key structural changes of the hypertrophied left ventricle in hypertensive heart disease. Increased angiotensin II was found to be important in the hypertension related fibrosis, while the underlying mechanism is unknown. In this study, we found that angiotensin II dose-dependently increased the expression of Col1a1, Col3a1 and α-smooth muscle actin, which were blocked by ROS (reactive oxygen species) scavenger N-acetyl cysteine (NAC). Mechanistically, angiotensin II induced robust ROS generation, which in turn induced cytoplasmic translocation of RNA binding protein HuR. Cytoplasmic translocated HuR increased TGFβ pathway activity and subsequent collagen synthesis. In contrast, knockdown of HuR nearly blocked angiotensin II induced TGFβ activation and collagen synthesis. Taken together, we here identified that angiotensin II promotes collagen synthesis in cardiac fibroblast through ROS-HuR-TGFβ pathway.