Galectin-3 interferes with tissue repair and promotes cardiac dysfunction and comorbidities in a genetic heart failure model

Galectin-3, a biomarker for heart failure (HF), has been associated with myocardial fibrosis. However, its causal involvement in HF pathogenesis has been questioned in certain models of cardiac injury-induced HF. To address this, we used desmin-deficient mice ($ des^{−/−} $), a model of progressive HF characterized by cardiomyocyte death, spontaneous inflammatory responses sustaining fibrosis, and galectin-3 overexpression. Genetic ablation or pharmacological inhibition of galectin-3 led to improvement of cardiac function and adverse remodeling features including fibrosis. Over the course of development of $ des^{−/−} $ cardiomyopathy, monitored for a period of 12 months, galectin-3 deficiency specifically ameliorated the decline in systolic function accompanying the acute inflammatory phase (4-week-old mice), whereas a more pronounced protective effect was observed in older mice, including the preservation of diastolic function. Interestingly, the cardiac repair activities during the early inflammatory phase were restored under galectin-3 deficiency by increasing the proliferation potential and decreasing apoptosis of fibroblasts, while galectin-3 absence modulated macrophage–fibroblast coupled functions and suppressed both pro-fibrotic activation of cardiac fibroblasts and pro-fibrotic gene expression in the $ des^{−/−} $ heart. In addition, galectin-3 also affected the emphysema-like comorbid pathology observed in the $ des^{−/−} $ mice, as its absence partially normalized lung compliance. Collectively galectin-3 was found to be causally involved in cardiac adverse remodeling, inflammation, and failure by affecting functions of cardiac fibroblasts and macrophages. In concordance with this role, the effectiveness of pharmacological inhibition in ameliorating cardiac pathology features establishes galectin-3 as a valid intervention target for HF, with additive benefits for treatment of associated comorbidities, such as pulmonary defects. Graphical abstract Schematic illustrating top to bottom, the detrimental role of galectin-3 (Gal3) in heart failure progression: desmin deficiency-associated spontaneous myocardial inflammation accompanying cardiac cell death (reddish dashed border) is characterized by infiltration of macrophages (round cells) and up-regulation of Lgals3 (encoding secretable galectin-3, green) and detrimental macrophage-related genes (Ccr2 and Arg1). In this galectin-3-enriched milieu, the early up-regulation of profibrotic gene expression (Tgfb1, Acta2, Col1a1), in parallel to the suppression of proliferative activities and a potential of senescence induction by cardiac fibroblasts (spindle-like cells), collectively promote $ des^{−/−} $ cardiac fibrosis and dysfunction establishing heart failure (left panel). Additionally, galectin-$ 3^{+} $ macrophage-enrichment accompanies the development of emphysema-like lung comorbidities. In the absence of galectin-3 (right panel), the effect of macrophage–fibroblast dipole and associated events are modulated (grey color depicts reduced expression or activities) leading to attenuated cardiac pathology in the $ des^{−/−} %$ Lgals3^{−/−} $ mice. Pulmonary comorbidities are also limited..

Medienart:	E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:	2022
Erschienen:	2022

Enthalten in:	Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:79
Enthalten in:	Cellular and molecular life sciences - 79(2022), 5 vom: 19. Apr.

Sprache:	Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:	Vlachou, Fani [VerfasserIn] Varela, Aimilia [VerfasserIn] Stathopoulou, Konstantina [VerfasserIn] Ntatsoulis, Konstantinos [VerfasserIn] Synolaki, Evgenia [VerfasserIn] Pratsinis, Harris [VerfasserIn] Kletsas, Dimitris [VerfasserIn] Sideras, Paschalis [VerfasserIn] Davos, Constantinos H. [VerfasserIn] Capetanaki, Yassemi [VerfasserIn] Psarras, Stelios [VerfasserIn]

Links:	Volltext [lizenzpflichtig]

Themen:	Cell proliferation Failing heart Galectins Macrophage–fibroblast cross-talk Pro-fibrotic response

Anmerkungen:	© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

doi:	10.1007/s00018-022-04266-6

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PPN (Katalog-ID):	SPR046788557