The lymphatic vasculature is a blind-ended network crucial for tissue fluid homeostasis, immune surveillance and lipid absorption from the gut. Recent evidence has proposed an entirely venous-derived mammalian lymphatic system. In contrast, we reveal here that cardiac lymphatic vessels have a heterogeneous cellular origin, whereby formation of at least part of the cardiac lymphatic network is independent of sprouting from veins. Multiple cre-lox based lineage tracing revealed a potential contribution from the hemogenic endothelium during development and discrete lymphatic endothelial progenitor populations were confirmed by conditional knockout of Prox1 in Tie2+ and Vav1+ compartments. In the adult heart, myocardial infarction (MI) promoted a significant lymphangiogenic response, which was augmented by treatment with VEGF-C resulting in improved cardiac function. These data prompt the re-evaluation of a century-long debate on the origin of lymphatic vessels and suggest that lymphangiogenesis may represent a therapeutic target to promote cardiac repair following injury.

Myocardial infarction (MI) arising from obstruction of the coronary circulation engenders massive cardiomyocyte loss and replacement by non-contractile scar tissue, leading to pathological remodeling, dysfunction, and ultimately heart failure. This is presently a global health problem for which there is no effective cure. Following MI, the innate immune system directs the phagocytosis of dead cell debris in an effort to stimulate cell repopulation and tissue renewal. In the mammalian adult heart, however, the persistent influx of immune cells, coupled with the lack of an inherent regenerative capacity, results in cardiac fibrosis. Here, we reveal that stimulation of cardiac lymphangiogenesis with VEGF-C improves clearance of the acute inflammatory response after MI by trafficking immune cells to draining mediastinal lymph nodes (MLNs) in a process dependent on lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronan receptor 1 (LYVE-1). Deletion of Lyve1 in mice, preventing docking and transit of leukocytes through the lymphatic endothelium, results in exacerbation of chronic inflammation and long-term deterioration of cardiac function. Our findings support targeting of the lymphatic/immune cell axis as a therapeutic paradigm to promote immune modulation and heart repair.

Compartmentalized cAMP/PKA signalling is now recognized as important for physiology and pathophysiology, yet a detailed understanding of the properties, regulation and function of local cAMP/PKA signals is lacking. Here we present a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based sensor, CUTie, which detects compartmentalized cAMP with unprecedented accuracy. CUTie, targeted to specific multiprotein complexes at discrete plasmalemmal, sarcoplasmic reticular and myofilament sites, reveals differential kinetics and amplitudes of localized cAMP signals. This nanoscopic heterogeneity of cAMP signals is necessary to optimize cardiac contractility upon adrenergic activation. At low adrenergic levels, and those mimicking heart failure, differential local cAMP responses are exacerbated, with near abolition of cAMP signalling at certain locations. This work provides tools and fundamental mechanistic insights into subcellular adrenergic signalling in normal and pathological cardiac function.

Iron is essential to the cell. Both iron deficiency and overload impinge negatively on cardiac health. Thus, effective iron homeostasis is important for cardiac function. Ferroportin (FPN), the only known mammalian iron-exporting protein, plays an essential role in iron homeostasis at the systemic level. It increases systemic iron availability by releasing iron from the cells of the duodenum, spleen, and liver, the sites of iron absorption, recycling, and storage respectively. However, FPN is also found in tissues with no known role in systemic iron handling, such as the heart, where its function remains unknown. To explore this function, we generated mice with a cardiomyocyte-specific deletion of Fpn. We show that these animals have severely impaired cardiac function, with a median survival of 22 wk, despite otherwise unaltered systemic iron status. We then compared their phenotype with that of ubiquitous hepcidin knockouts, a recognized model of the iron-loading disease hemochromatosis. The phenotype of the hepcidin knockouts was far milder, with normal survival up to 12 mo, despite far greater iron loading in the hearts. Histological examination demonstrated that, although cardiac iron accumulates within the cardiomyocytes of Fpn knockouts, it accumulates predominantly in other cell types in the hepcidin knockouts. We conclude, first, that cardiomyocyte FPN is essential for intracellular iron homeostasis and, second, that the site of deposition of iron within the heart determines the severity with which it affects cardiac function. Both findings have significant implications for the assessment and treatment of cardiac complications of iron dysregulation.

Although diabetic cardiomyopathy is widely recognized, there are no specific treatments available. Altered myocardial substrate selection has emerged as a candidate mechanism behind the development of cardiac dysfunction in diabetes. As pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) activity appears central to the balance of substrate use, we aimed to investigate the relationship between PDH flux and myocardial function in a rodent model of type 2 diabetes and to explore whether or not increasing PDH flux, with dichloroacetate, would restore the balance of substrate use and improve cardiac function. All animals underwent in vivo hyperpolarized [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] C]pyruvate magnetic resonance spectroscopy and echocardiography to assess cardiac PDH flux and function, respectively. Diabetic animals showed significantly higher blood glucose levels (10.8 6 0.7 vs. 8.4 6 0.5 mmol/L), lower PDH flux (0.005 6 0.001 vs. 0.017 6 0.002 s -1 ), and significantly impaired diastolic function (transmitral early diastolic peak velocity/early diastolic myocardial velocity ratio [E/E9] 12.2 6 0.8 vs. 20 6 2), which are in keeping with early diabetic cardiomyopathy. Twenty-eight days of treatment with dichloroacetate restored PDH flux to normal levels (0.018 6 0.002 s -1 ), reversed diastolic dysfunction (E/E9 14 6 1), and normalized blood glucose levels (7.5 6 0.7 mmol/L). The treatment of diabetes with dichloroacetate therefore restored the balance of myocardial substrate selection, reversed diastolic dysfunction, and normalized blood glucose levels. This suggests that PDH modulation could be a novel therapy for the treatment and/or prevention of diabetic cardiomyopathy.It is now firmly established that type 2 diabetes contributes to an increased risk for the development of heart failure (1). Although some of this risk can be attributed to increased coronary artery disease and hypertension, it is becoming clear that patients with type 2 diabetes are also at risk for the development of "diabetic cardiomyopathy" (2-5), which manifests across a spectrum from subclinical left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction (i.e., transmitral early diastolic peak velocity/early diastolic myocardial velocity ratio [E/E9]) to overt systolic failure (6). As the incidence of type 2 diabetes is rapidly increasing, understanding the pathophysiology behind diabetic cardiomyopathy and developing new treatment strategies is of increasing clinical importance.Cardiac metabolism and altered substrate use are now emerging as candidate mechanisms underpinning diabetic cardiomyopathy and, as such, are targets for novel treatments (7,8). The cardiac metabolic changes in type 2 diabetes are linked to an increase in circulating fatty acid levels that results from insulin insensitivity and a failure to suppress adipose tissue hormone-sensitive lipase (9). This increase in fatty acid availability, and consequently increased cardiac usage, is thought to result in a loss of efficiency between substrate use and ATP production in the diabetic heart (10). Chan...