Cardiovascular Research Advance Access originally published online on November 20, 2007
Cardiovascular Research 2008 77(3):448-451; doi:10.1093/cvr/cvm074
Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2007. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
An alternative view of apoptosis in heart development and disease
Daniel Sanchis*,
Marta Llovera,
Manel Ballester and
Joan X. Comella
Cell Signaling and Apoptosis Group, Biomedical Research Institute of Lleida (IRBLLEIDA), Av. Rovira Roure, 80, 25198 Lleida Spain
* Corresponding author. Tel: +34 973702215; fax: +34 973702213. E-mail address: daniel.sanchis{at}cmb.udl.cat
Although the involvement of caspases in cardiomyocyte death is widely accepted [reviewed in1], increasing experimental evidence suggests that caspase activation is not relevant for post-mitotic cardiomyocyte cell death.2–7 Controversy also exists as to the mechanisms conferring cardioprotection by caspase inhibitors, which could be unrelated to apoptosis or target non-myocardial cells.8–11 In addition, the genes controlling the caspase-dependent death pathway are silenced during early post-natal development.7,12 Finally, the major role of death receptors and the Bcl-2-related proteins in the myocardium is probably to control differentiation, adaptation to stress and mitochondrial integrity. In light of these findings, we propose here an alternative explanation of the role of canonical apoptosis regulators in the control of cardiomyocyte life and death.
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1. Caspase-dependent signalling is important during heart morphogenesis and is later silenced in post-mitotic cardiomyocytes
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Cell death implying apoptotic-like DNA damage occurs during
embryonic heart development.
13–15 Experiments using caspase
inhibitors suggest that caspase-dependent cell death occurs
in the cardiac regions submitted to important morphological
changes, such as the ventriculoarterial connections, the atrioventricular
cushions, and the conduction tissue.
16–18 Therefore, caspase
activation is likely assuring the proper formation of the cardiac
cavities and the correct docking of the arteries to the ventricles
during development. Later, the caspase-dependent death machinery
is repressed during cardiomyocyte terminal differentiation,
7,12 as it has been described in retinal neurons.
19
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2. Mitochondrial damage implicated in post-mitotic cardiomyocyte death is not associated with caspase activation
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Many reports have demonstrated that mitochondrial damage precedes
post-mitotic cardiomyocyte cell death and have suggested the
involvement of caspases
20 yet the engagement of these proteases
downstream of mitochondrial damage is still debated [e.g.
4 vs.
21]. The Bcl-2 family controls mitochondrial events leading
to caspase activation by regulating outer mitochondrial membrane
permeabilization. However, mitochondrial damage also hinders
aerobic metabolism and alters cellular Ca
2+ homeostasis. Thus,
Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL-dependent cardioprotection could be achieved
by maintaining mitochondrial physiology through preservation
of mitochondrial membrane integrity.
22–25 Further, supporting
a role of mitochondrial damage unrelated to caspases yet involving
Bcl-2-related proteins, Bnip3 induces caspase-independent mitochondrial
permeabilization during cardiac ischaemia.
5 In this setting,
myocyte DNA degradation is independent of caspases.
5,7 In addition,
high expression of Bcl-2 is suggested to limit autophagy in
the heart.
26 Because of its relevance in cardiomyocyte homeostasis,
3,27–29 autophagy is a process controlled by the Bcl-2 family that could
affect cardiomyocyte viability.
Another event involved in mitochondrial damage is the destabilization of the inner mitochondrial membrane integrity (mitochondrial permeability transition, MPT). MPT dissipates the electrochemical gradient, affecting aerobic energy production, and triggering the release of mitochondrial proteins to the cytosol.30 In cardiomyocytes, MPT is implied in cell death in a caspase-independent and Bcl-2-independent manner during ischaemia and reperfusion.31 In addition, caspase-independent calpain activation ensuing from mitochondrial damage could also impair Na+/K+ exchanger function, and hence Ca2+ homeostasis, exacerbating cardiac cell death during reperfusion.4,32 Moreover, an increase in the cytosolic Ca2+ pool could aggravate mitochondrial damage by increasing the cyclophilin-D-dependent MPT.31 Finally, the antiapoptotic protein ARC (Apoptotic Repressor with CARD domain)33,34 that has been shown to safeguard the heart34 and to block caspase activation in cell lines35,36 can also protect from caspase-independent death,37,38 suggesting that ARC-dependent protection could be caspase-independent in post-mitotic cardiomyocytes.
The above evidences suggest that mitochondrial damage is an important event leading to cardiomyocyte death without downstream activation of caspases. Our results show that the disruption between cytochrome c release and caspase activity is due to the silencing of key pro-apoptotic genes including Apaf-1 and executioner caspases during cardiac development [6,7, see Figure 1]. This could be an evolutionary selection to prevent death of long-lived cardiomyocytes after release of cytochrome c in order to sustain viability in case of mitochondrial rupture.
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Figure 1 Literature-based hypothesis on the role of the caspase-dependent signalling cascade and the Bcl-2 protein family in the biology of the cardiomyocyte. In the cardiac embryonic cell (upper left panel), all the components of the caspase-dependent signalling pathway as well as the Bcl-2 family of proteins are expressed. The death receptor pathway is involved in myocardial differentiation by unknown mechanisms. Expression of Bcl-2 could account for the low autophagic activity. In the forming heart, some cells die by caspase-dependent mechanisms, although the relative contribution of the different pathways remains to be resolved (lower left panel). At the end of the terminal differentiation process (upper right panel), cardiomyocytes have lost the expression of the caspase-dependent signalling cascade. Reduction in the expression of Bcl-2 allows an increase in basal autophagy, which helps in maintaining the homeostasis of these long-lived cells. Some components of the death receptor pathway could be involved in the hypertrophic response of adult cardiomyocytes, in addition to the well-known role of calcineurin A (CnA). Maladaptive hypertrophy, exacerbated autophagy and other harmful events lead to caspase-independent mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT), cytochrome c release and calcium signalling alterations, leading to cell dysfunction and death. In this diagram, other relevant pathways involved in cardioprotection, as well as the contribution of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SPR), have been omitted for clarity. a-Bax, activated Bax; C3/7, caspases 3 and 7; C8, caspase-8; C9, caspase-9; CypD, cyclophilin-D; Cyt C, cytochrome c; DISC, death-inducing signalling complex; TRADD, TNF receptor-associated death domain.
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3. Death receptor-dependent apoptosis is involved in non-myocyte cell death in experimental models of heart disease
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Fas-dependent signalling has been implicated in cardiomyocyte
death during graft rejection and ischaemia/reoxygenation, as
suggested by experiments comparing cardiomyocyte death in wild
type mice and mice carrying loss-of-function mutations of either
Fas or Fas ligand (FasL) genes (lpr and gld mice, respectively).
39–41 However, it has been demonstrated that cardiac graft salvage
in lpr and gld mice is due to a general impairment of the host
immune response, which normally would attack the graft, and
not to a specific role of cardiac Fas signalling.
42 During ischaemia/reoxygenation-induced
cardiomyocyte death, Fas and FasL have been shown recently to
promote granulation tissue death but not cardiomyocyte loss.
43,44 These results agree with the finding that the main role of caspase
inhibitors given during experimental myocardial infarction is
to protect non-myocardial cells.
11 Tumor necrosis factor-
(TNF-
)
was reported to induce DNA damage in cultured adult cardiomyocytes,
although the involvement of caspases was not checked.
45 However,
recent reports using biochemical and genetic approaches have
discarded a direct role of this cytokine in cardiomyocyte death.
46–51 TNF-
genetic deficiency reduced cardiac inflammation and fibrosis,
suggesting a role of TNF-
in granulation tissue signalling.
51 Interestingly, TNF-
also induces caspase activation in vascular
endothelial cells,
52 which dye by apoptosis during congestive
heart failure.
53 Therefore, the extrinsic pathway likely induces
granulation tissue and endothelial cell death but not cardiomyocyte
death during heart disease.
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4. Death receptors play a relevant role in cardiomyocyte differentiation and growth
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Against expectation, null mutation of some components of the
death receptor pathway, such as Fas-associated death domain
(FADD), caspase-8 and cFLIP, a caspase-8-like protein that lacks
the protease motif, induce ventricular cell hypoplasia and non
compaction of the ventricular wall in the embryo.
54–56 Interestingly, the role of these proteins in heart development
seems to be independent of cell death because deficiency in
the pro-apoptotic factors FADD and caspase-8, as well as lack
of anti-apoptotic cFLIP, result in the same cardiac phenotype.
On the contrary, experimental overexpression of Fas or FasL
induces hypertrophy in cardiomyocytes.
57–59 Cardiac hypertrophy
ensues also from TNF-
stimulation
in vitro46,47 and
in vivo.
48–49 In addition, mice lacking TNF receptors 1 and 2 have larger
infarct areas than wild-type animals,
50 and TNF-
genetic deficiency
decreases the hypertrophic growth of the myocardium after aortic
banding.
51 These data suggest that cardiac death receptor activation
triggers hypertrophy. Therefore, genetic and biochemical evidences
suggest that the extrinsic pathway regulates cardiomyocyte differentiation
and cardiac response to stress through cell death-independent
mechanisms that remain to be explored.
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5. Concluding remarks
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In our opinion, there is solid evidence suggesting that although
caspase-dependent cell death is involved in heart morphogenesis,
post-mitotic cardiomyocyte death is a caspase-independent event.
This shift could come after the repression of pro-apoptotic
genes in cardiomyocytes during differentiation (see
Figure 1).
Caspase activation would affect indirectly post-mitotic myocyte
cell survival and heart performance because it induces death
of endothelial cells and granulation tissue. On the contrary,
post-mitotic cardiomyocyte death would ensue from mitochondrial
damage, which hampers aerobic respiration and alters calcium
homeostasis in the absence of caspases. In addition, death receptors
and the Bcl-2 family regulate events that are essential for
cardiac function, such as cell differentiation and mitochondrial
integrity, and modulate the response to stress by inducing hypertrophy
and controlling autophagy. The full comprehension of these events
will have great therapeutic potential.
Conflict of interest: none declared.
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Funding
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Ministry of Education and Science of Spain (SAF2005-02197 to
D.S.).
Comissionat per a Universitats i Recerca-Government of Catalonia (‘Suport als Grups de Recerca de Catalunya’ conjoint grant to J.X.C., D.S. and M.L.).
Ministry of Education and Science of Spain (‘Ramón y Cajal’ contract to D.S. and M.L.).
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Notes
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The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those
of the Editors of
Cardiovascular Research or of the European
Society of Cardiology.
Present address. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Edifici M Campus Bellaterra, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain. 
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