Alendronate prevents angiotensin II-induced collagen I production through geranylgeranylation-dependent RhoA/Rho kinase activation in cardiac fibroblasts

Collagen I is the main component of extracellular matrix in cardiac fibrosis. Our previous studies have reported inhibition of farnesylpyrophosphate synthase prevents angiotensin II-induced cardiac fibrosis, while the exact molecular mechanism was still unclear. This paper was designed to investigat...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yang Ye (Author), Xue Lv (Author), Mei-hui Wang (Author), Jun Zhu (Author), Shi-quan Chen (Author), Chen-yang Jiang (Author), Guo-sheng Fu (Author)
Format: Book
Published: Elsevier, 2015-12-01T00:00:00Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Connect to this object online.
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Collagen I is the main component of extracellular matrix in cardiac fibrosis. Our previous studies have reported inhibition of farnesylpyrophosphate synthase prevents angiotensin II-induced cardiac fibrosis, while the exact molecular mechanism was still unclear. This paper was designed to investigate the effect of alendronate, a farnesylpyrophosphate synthase inhibitor, on regulating angiotensin II-induced collagen I expression in cultured cardiac fibroblasts and to explore the underlying mechanism. By measuring the mRNA and protein levels of collagen I, we found that alendronate prevented angiotensin II-induced collagen I production in a dose-dependent manner. The inhibitory effect on collagen I expression was reversed by geranylgeraniol, and mimicked by inhibitors of RhoA/Rho kinase pathway including C3 exoenzyme and GGTI-286. Thus we suggested geranylgeranylation-dependent RhoA/Rho kinase activation was involved in alendronate-mediated anti-collagen I synthetic effect. Furthermore, we accessed the activation status of RhoA in alendronate-, geranylgeraniol- and GGTI-286-treated cardiac fibroblasts and gave an indirect evidence for RhoA activation via geranylgeranylation. Then we came to the conclusion that in cardiac fibroblasts, alendronate could protect against angiotensin II-induced collagen I synthesis through inhibition of geranylgeranylation and inactivation of RhoA/Rho kinase signaling. Targeting geranylgeranylation and RhoA/Rho kinase signaling will hopefully serve as therapeutic strategies to reduce fibrosis in heart remodeling.
Item Description:1347-8613
10.1016/j.jphs.2015.10.006