iScience (May 2024)

The activation of LBH-CRYAB signaling promotes cardiac protection against I/R injury by inhibiting apoptosis and ferroptosis

  • Anbiao Wu,
  • Chongbin Zhong,
  • Xudong Song,
  • Wen Yuan,
  • Mintian Tang,
  • Tao Shu,
  • Houda Huang,
  • Pingzhen Yang,
  • Qicai Liu

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 27, no. 5
p. 109510

Abstract

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Summary: Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury stands out among cardiovascular diseases, and current treatments are considered unsatisfactory. For cardiomyocytes (CMs) in ischemic tissues, the upregulation of Limb-bud and Heart (LBH) and αB-crystallin (CRYAB) and their subsequent downregulation in the context of cardiac fibrosis have been verified in our previous research. Here, we focused on the effects and mechanisms of activated LBH-CRYAB signaling on damaged CMs during I/R injury, and confirmed the occurrence of mitochondrial apoptosis and ferroptosis during I/R injury. The application of inhibitors, ectopic expression vectors, and knockout mouse models uniformly verified the role of LBH in alleviating both apoptosis and ferroptosis of CMs. p53 was identified as a mutual downstream effector for both LBH-CRYAB-modulated apoptosis and ferroptosis inhibition. In mouse models, LBH overexpression was confirmed to exert enhanced cardiac protection against I/R-induced apoptosis and ferroptosis, suggesting that LBH could serve as a promising target for the development of I/R therapy.

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