RESUMO
Marfan syndrome is an autosomal dominant disease of connective tissue caused by mutations in the fibrillin-1 encoding gene FBN1. Patients present cardiovascular, ocular and skeletal manifestations, and although being fully penetrant, MFS is characterized by a wide clinical variability both within and between families. Here we describe a new mouse model of MFS that recapitulates the clinical heterogeneity of the syndrome in humans. Heterozygotes for the mutant Fbn1 allele mgΔloxPneo, carrying the same internal deletion of exons 19-24 as the mgΔ mouse model, present defective microfibrillar deposition, emphysema, deterioration of aortic wall and kyphosis. However, the onset of a clinical phenotypes is earlier in the 129/Sv than in C57BL/6 background, indicating the existence of genetic modifiers of MFS between these two mouse strains. In addition, we characterized a wide clinical variability within the 129/Sv congenic heterozygotes, suggesting involvement of epigenetic factors in disease severity. Finally, we show a strong negative correlation between overall levels of Fbn1 expression and the severity of the phenotypes, corroborating the suggested protective role of normal fibrillin-1 in MFS pathogenesis, and supporting the development of therapies based on increasing Fbn1 expression.
Assuntos
Modelos Animais de Doenças , Expressão Gênica , Síndrome de Marfan/genética , Proteínas dos Microfilamentos/genética , Animais , Sequência de Bases , Células Cultivadas , Embrião de Mamíferos/citologia , Embrião de Mamíferos/metabolismo , Fibrilina-1 , Fibrilinas , Fibroblastos/citologia , Fibroblastos/metabolismo , Imunofluorescência , Genótipo , Humanos , Síndrome de Marfan/metabolismo , Síndrome de Marfan/patologia , Camundongos , Camundongos da Linhagem 129 , Camundongos Endogâmicos C57BL , Camundongos Knockout , Proteínas dos Microfilamentos/metabolismo , Fenótipo , Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase Via Transcriptase ReversaRESUMO
X chromosome inactivation (XCI) in human and mice involves XIST/Xist gene expression from the inactive X (Xi) and repression from the active X (Xa). Repression of the XIST/Xist gene on the Xa has been associated with methylation of its 5' region. In mice, Dnmt1 has been shown to be involved in the methylation and transcriptional repression of Xist on Xa. We examined maintenance of XIST gene repression on Xa in HCT116 cell lines knockout for either DNMT1 or DNMT3B and for DNMT1 and DNMT3B simultaneously. Methylation of the XIST promoter and XIST transcriptional repression is sustained in DNMT1-, DNMT3B- and DNMT1/DNMT3B knockout cells. Despite global DNA demethylation, the double knockout cells present only partial demethylation of the XIST promoter, which is not sufficient for gene reactivation. In contrast, global DNA demethylation with 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine leads to XIST expression. Therefore, in these human cells maintenance of XIST methylation is controlled differently than global genomic methylation and in the absence of both DNMT1 and DNMT3B.