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Sema3a maintains normal heart rhythm through sympathetic innervation patterning

Nature Medicine volume 13, pages 604–612 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Sympathetic innervation is critical for effective cardiac function. However, the developmental and regulatory mechanisms determining the density and patterning of cardiac sympathetic innervation remain unclear, as does the role of this innervation in arrhythmogenesis. Here we show that a neural chemorepellent, Sema3a, establishes cardiac sympathetic innervation patterning. Sema3a is abundantly expressed in the trabecular layer in early-stage embryos but is restricted to Purkinje fibers after birth, forming an epicardial-to-endocardial transmural sympathetic innervation patterning. Sema3a−/− mice lacked a cardiac sympathetic innervation gradient and exhibited stellate ganglia malformation, which led to marked sinus bradycardia due to sympathetic dysfunction. Cardiac-specific overexpression of Sema3a in transgenic mice (SemaTG) was associated with reduced sympathetic innervation and attenuation of the epicardial-to-endocardial innervation gradient. SemaTG mice demonstrated sudden death and susceptibility to ventricular tachycardia, due to catecholamine supersensitivity and prolongation of the action potential duration. We conclude that appropriate cardiac Sema3a expression is needed for sympathetic innervation patterning and is critical for heart rate control.

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Figure 1: Regional heterogeneity of sympathetic innervation in the mouse heart.
Figure 2: Inverse pattern of Sema3a expression and sympathetic innervation in developing hearts.
Figure 3: Cardiac sympathetic innervation patterning is disrupted in Sema3a-deficient mice.
Figure 4: Sema3a-deficient mice display malformation of stellate ganglia and sinus bradycardia.
Figure 5: Cardiac sympathetic innervation patterning was disturbed in SemaTG hearts.
Figure 6: SemaTG mice are highly susceptible to induction of ventricular arrhythmia.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to J. Robbins (Cincinnati Children's Hospital) for the expression vector containing the α-myosin heavy chain promoter. We also thank Y. Tanimoto, Y. Miyake, H. Kawaguchi, E. Kobayashi and M. Nakamura for technical assistance. We are also grateful to the members of the Fukuda laboratory for their comments on the manuscript. This study was supported in part by research grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, and the Program for Promotion of Fundamental Studies in Health Sciences of the National Institute of Biomedical Innovation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Regenerative Medicine and Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 160-8582, Japan

    Masaki Ieda, Hideaki Kanazawa, Kensuke Kimura, Fumiyuki Hattori, Yasuyo Ieda, Keisuke Matsumura, Yuichi Tomita, Shinji Makino, Motoaki Sano & Keiichi Fukuda

  2. Cardiology Division, Department of Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 160-8582, Japan

    Masaki Ieda, Hideaki Kanazawa, Keisuke Matsumura, Shunichiro Miyoshi & Satoshi Ogawa

  3. Department of Biochemistry, Cancer Research Institute, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, S-1, W-17, Chuo-ku, 060-8556, Sapporo, Japan

    Masahiko Taniguchi

  4. Department of Cardiovascular Research, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, 464-8601, Nagoya, Japan

    Jong-Kook Lee & Itsuo Kodama

  5. Laboratory Animal Center, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 160-8582, Japan

    Kouji Shimoda

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Contributions

M.I. designed the study, conducted all experiments, and wrote the manuscript. H.K. and K.K. conducted histochemical characterization. F.H. participated in subcloning. Y.I. conducted the growth cone collapse assay. M.T. provided Sema3a−/− mice and Sema3alacZ/lacZ mice. S.M., J.-K.L and I.K participated in and provided advice on the electrophysiology. K.M. and Y.T. participated in histochemical characterization. K.S. conducted the pronuclear microinjection. S.M. and M.S. participated in northern blotting and western blotting. S.O. provided advice on the experimental design. K.F. supported financially and supervised the whole project.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Keiichi Fukuda.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

The time course of cardiac sympathetic innervation in developing hearts (PDF 718 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

The central conduction system in wild-type hearts (PDF 688 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3

Sema3a expression and sympathetic innervation in SemaTG hearts (PDF 802 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

Sema3a–deficient mice display sinus bradycardia (PDF 1813 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

Electrophysiological data in WT and SemaTG mice (PDF 2024 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 7 kb)

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Ieda, M., Kanazawa, H., Kimura, K. et al. Sema3a maintains normal heart rhythm through sympathetic innervation patterning. Nat Med 13, 604–612 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1570

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