Construction and Functional Analysis of BNP Promoter Luciferase Reporter Plasmid

摘要

Cardiac hypertrophy is an adaptive response of the heart to mechanical, hemodynamic, hormonal and pathologic stimuli [1]. Long-term hypertrophy can lead to reduced coronary flow reserve, increased incidence of cardiac ischemia and arrhythmias, which may eventually lead to heart failure and sudden death [2]. Myocardin is a cardiac and smooth muscle-specific co-activator of SRF that potently binds to CArG box which are within the promoters of cardiac and smooth muscle target genes, such as brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), one of the most sensitive markers of hypertrophic signaling, and activates its transcription. Previous study showed that overexpression of myocardin can induce the cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and fetal cardiac gene expression [3].