Abstract 18494: WNT Mediated Regulation Signals IN Chamber-Specific Neonatal Heart Maturation and Disease

Background: Chamber-specific and temporally orchestrated perinatal cardiac growth and maturation is critical to functional adaptation of heart to the dramatic changes in hemodynamic load and nutrient environment, and perturbation of this process may have major implications in congenital heart defects (CHDs). However, the responsible molecular regulatory mechanisms are still poorly understood. Objective: To determine the factors that control chamber specificity of neonatal heart growth during perinatal maturation Methods: Total transcriptome was analyzed from deep RNA-seq in male newborn mouse (C57BL) left ventricle (LV) and right ventricle (RV) at postnatal day 0, 3 and 7. Functional validation was performed in Neonatal Rat Ventricular Myocytes (NRVMs) and intact neonatal mice. Results: Chamber specific- regulation of cell cycle genes was correlated with chamber specific- expression of the non-canonical Wnt11. Exogenous expression of Wnt11 induced maturation markers and suppressed cell cycle genes in myoc...