Autoimmunity Against Cardiac Myosin Congenital Heart Disease Linked To
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Congenital Heart Disease Linked to Maternal Autoimmunity against Cardiac Myosin Charles R. Cole, Katherine E. Yutzey, Anoop K. Brar, Lisa S. Goessling, Sarah J. VanVickle-Chavez, Madeleine W. This information is current as Cunningham and Pirooz Eghtesady of September 29, 2021. J Immunol 2014; 192:4074-4082; Prepublished online 26 March 2014; doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1301264 http://www.jimmunol.org/content/192/9/4074 Downloaded from Supplementary http://www.jimmunol.org/content/suppl/2014/03/26/jimmunol.130126 Material 4.DCSupplemental http://www.jimmunol.org/ References This article cites 47 articles, 14 of which you can access for free at: http://www.jimmunol.org/content/192/9/4074.full#ref-list-1 Why The JI? Submit online. • Rapid Reviews! 30 days* from submission to initial decision by guest on September 29, 2021 • No Triage! Every submission reviewed by practicing scientists • Fast Publication! 4 weeks from acceptance to publication *average Subscription Information about subscribing to The Journal of Immunology is online at: http://jimmunol.org/subscription Permissions Submit copyright permission requests at: http://www.aai.org/About/Publications/JI/copyright.html Email Alerts Receive free email-alerts when new articles cite this article. Sign up at: http://jimmunol.org/alerts The Journal of Immunology is published twice each month by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc., 1451 Rockville Pike, Suite 650, Rockville, MD 20852 Copyright © 2014 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc. All rights reserved. Print ISSN: 0022-1767 Online ISSN: 1550-6606. The Journal of Immunology Congenital Heart Disease Linked to Maternal Autoimmunity against Cardiac Myosin Charles R. Cole,* Katherine E. Yutzey,* Anoop K. Brar,† Lisa S. Goessling,† Sarah J. VanVickle-Chavez,† Madeleine W. Cunningham,‡,1 and Pirooz Eghtesady†,1 Structural congenital heart disease (CHD) has not previously been linked to autoimmunity. In our study, we developed an auto- immune model of structural CHD that resembles hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a life-threatening CHD primarily af- fecting the left ventricle. Because cardiac myosin (CM) is a dominant autoantigen in autoimmune heart disease, we hypothesized that immunization with CM might lead to transplacental passage of maternal autoantibodies and a prenatal HLHS phenotype in exposed fetuses. Elevated anti-CM autoantibodies in maternal and fetal sera, as well as IgG reactivity in fetal myocardium, were correlated with structural CHD that included diminished left ventricular cavity dimensions in the affected progeny. Further, fetuses that developed a marked HLHS phenotype had elevated serum titers of anti–b-adrenergic receptor Abs, as well as increased Downloaded from protein kinase A activity, suggesting a potential mechanism for the observed pathological changes. Our maternal–fetal model presents a new concept linking autoimmunity against CM and cardiomyocyte proliferation with cardinal features of HLHS. To our knowledge, this report shows the first evidence in support of a novel immune-mediated mechanism for pathogenesis of structural CHD that may have implications in its future diagnosis and treatment. The Journal of Immunology, 2014, 192: 4074–4082. ongenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common cause heart block, maternal autoantibodies in patients with systemic http://www.jimmunol.org/ of infant death resulting from birth defects (1). Hypo- lupus erythematosus cause injury to the conduction system of the C plastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a severe and dev- fetal heart (14–16). We had previously hypothesized that auto- astating congenital heart malformation, accounts for nearly 25% immunity might play a role in a maternal–fetal model of of all neonatal deaths from CHD (1–3). HLHS is uniformly fatal structural left-sided CHD (12). Our hypothesis has been sup- without intervention, and despite aggressive medical and surgical ported by the observation of high titers of anti–human cardiac palliation, many affected children experience a significant devel- myosin (CM) IgG autoantibodies in sera from mothers of babies opmental delay and decreased quality of life (4, 5). Although with HLHS, but not other CHD or healthy controls, in an on- etiological mechanisms leading to HLHS are largely unknown, going clinical study (Clinicaltrial.gov 201102410). Anti-CM both genetic and environmental insults are potential contributors autoantibodies are linked to several autoimmune diseases of the by guest on September 29, 2021 (6–10). About one fourth of HLHS cases occur in the context of heart, including autoimmune myocarditis (17–22) and rheumatic recognized genetic disorders or syndromes; studies involving carditis, the most serious manifestation of group A streptococcus– nonsyndromic family members suggest that heritability is com- induced rheumatic fever (23–25). In this study we determined plex (9, 11) and environmental influences such as infection and whether maternal immunization with CM, a major autoantigen in autoimmunity might contribute to the phenotypic expression of human heart (22), could produce an HLHS-like phenotype in certain subsets of HLHS (3, 6, 12, 13). susceptible offspring following transplacental passage of anti- In some cases of CHD, transplacental passage of maternal IgG heart Abs. Experiments conducted in the Lewis rat, an estab- has been reported to affect the fetus. For instance, in congenital lished model of CM-induced autoimmune heart disease (19, 20), led to an HLHS-like phenotype seen in human infants. Autoim- munity against the heart is a new concept in the pathogenesis of *Division of Molecular Cardiovascular Biology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Med- HLHS. ical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229; †Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Washington University Medical Center, St. Louis, MO 63110; and ‡Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Materials and Methods OK 73104 Ag preparation 1M.W.C. and P.E. are cosenior authors. Rat CM was purified from rat heart tissue according to previously described Received for publication May 22, 2013. Accepted for publication February 18, 2014. techniques, with slight modifications (25, 26). Heart tissue was homoge- This work was supported in part by National Institutes of Health Grants R21- nized in a low-salt buffer [40 mM KCl, 20 mM imidazole, 5 mM ethylene HL104391 (to P.E.), F32-HL103054 (to C.R.C.), R01-HL56267 (to M.W.C.), and glycol-bis(b-aminoethyl ester)-N,N,N’,N’-tetraacetic acid, 5 mM DTT, 0.5 R37-HL35280 (to M.W.C.) and funds from the Saving Tiny Hearts Society. M.W.C. mM PMSF, 1 mg leupeptin per milliliter] for 15 s on ice. The washed is the recipient of a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Method to Extend myofibrils were collected by centrifugation at 16,000 3 g for 10 min. The Research in Time Award. pellets were then resuspended in high-salt buffer [0.3 M KCl, 0.15 M Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Pirooz Eghtesady, Pediatric Car- K2HPO4, 1 mM ethylene glycol-bis(b-aminoethyl ester)-N,N,N’,N’-tetra- diothoracic Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, Campus Box 8234, acetic acid, 5 mM DTT, 0.5 mM PMSF, 1 mg leupeptin per milliliter] and St. Louis, MO 63110. E-mail address: [email protected] homogenized for three 30-s bursts on ice. The homogenized tissue was The online version of this article contains supplemental material. further incubated on ice, with stirring for 30 min to facilitate actomyosin Abbreviations used in this article: b-AR, b-adrenergic receptor; CHD, congenital extraction. After clarification by centrifugation, actomyosin was precipi- heart disease; CM, cardiac myosin; HLHS, hypoplastic left heart syndrome; LV, left tated by the addition of 10 volumes of cold water, followed by a pH ad- ventricle (ventricular); PKA, protein kinase A; RV, right ventricle (ventricular). justment to 6.5. DTT was added to 5 mM, and the precipitation was allowed to proceed for 30 min. The actomyosin was then pelleted by Copyright Ó 2014 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc. 0022-1767/14/$16.00 centrifugation at 16,000 3 g. The actomyosin pellet was then resuspended www.jimmunol.org/cgi/doi/10.4049/jimmunol.1301264 The Journal of Immunology 4075 in high-salt buffer, ammonium sulfate was increased to 33%, and the KCl ventricular (RV) lateral and apical free walls, three measurements were concentration was increased to 0.5 M. After the actomyosin pellet and salts taken in 100-mm intervals. Three area measurements of the LV and RV were dissolved, ATP was added to 10 mM and MgCl2 was added to 5 mM, were also obtained using comparable apical four-chambered sections. and then the solution was centrifuged at 20,000 3 g for 15 min to remove Measurements were then averaged from each location for statistical actin filaments. The supernatant was removed and stored at 4˚C in the analysis. Owing to some cardiac damage during harvest that altered heart presence of the following inhibitors: 0.5 mM PMSF, 5 mg/ml N-tosyl-L- chamber dimensions, two affected and two unaffected fetal hearts were lysine chloromethyl ketone, and 1 mg leupeptin per milliliter. The presence excluded from LV/RV lumen area measurements. Maternal hearts were of CM was verified and quantitated by ELISA and Western immunoblot processed as previously described (20). A veterinary pathologist evaluated using mAb specific for CM protein. maternal heart sections for the presence of myocarditis and valvulitis. Immunization protocol Western blot analysis Specific pathogen–free female Lewis rats (LEW-RT1l)(∼8 wk old) were Binding of maternal and fetal serum to lysates (10 mg total protein) of adult purchased from Charles River Laboratories (Raleigh, NC) and were rat heart, liver, lung, and spleen was determined by Western blot analysis, maintained in a pathogen-free environment at Cincinnati Children’s Hos- as previously described (22). Sera from CM-injected maternal rats and pital animal facility. Rats were acclimated for 7 d prior to entering the affected fetal offspring, along with sera from control maternal rats and immunization protocol.