The aging of mammals is accompanied by the progressive atrophy of tissues and organs and the accumulation of random damage to macromolecular DNA, protein, and lipids. Flavonoids have excellent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective effects. Recent studies have shown that flavonoids can delay aging and prolong a healthy lifespan by eliminating senescent cells, inhibiting senescence-related secretion phenotypes (SASPs), and maintaining metabolic homeostasis. However, only a few systematic studies have described flavonoids in clinical treatment for anti-aging, which needs to be explored further. This review first highlights the association between aging and macromolecular damage. Then, we discuss advances in the role of flavonoid molecules in prolonging the health span and lifespan of organisms. This study may provide crucial information for drug design and developmental and clinical applications based on flavonoids.

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ObjectiveCongenital heart defects (CHD) represent the most common congenital anomaly in newborns. The causes of CHD are complex, and are not fully understood. A number of genetic studies have linked gene mutations to cardiac abnormalities. In this study, we found a child who was diagnosed as having a complex including complete endocardial cushion defect, patent ductus arteriosus, secondary atrial septal defect, severe pulmonary hypertension, and polydactyly, we aimed to identify potential pathogenic mutations from this complex.MethodsThe whole blood was collected and genomic DNA was extracted to identify mutations by whole exome sequencing (WES). The CRISPR/Cas9 system was used to generate human pluripotent stem cell with mutations (hPSC‐Mut) separately. As pluripotency markers, Oct4, Nanog, Klf4, SSEA4 were tested in hPSC‐Mut cell, by the methods of Immunofluorescence, Real‐Time PCR, Western Blot. The hPSC‐Mut cell was then inducted and differentiated into cardiomyocytes (CM‐Mut), The differentiation efficiency and contraction of CM‐Mut was detected in 0d, 2d, 4d, 8d, 13d.ResultTwo heterozygous mutations, LTBP2 (c.2206G>A), TCTN3 (c.1268G>A) were identified via WES and analysed by bioinformatics. The hPSC‐LT/TC stable cell line was constructed, inducted and differentiated into CM‐LT/TC. Compare to the wild type, there were no significant differences in cell pluripotency and differentiation efficiency. The cell contraction was observed in the 8th day and lasted to the 13rd day, the contraction of CM‐LT was faster and CM‐LT was slower than wild type cell line.ConclusionTwo heterozygous mutations LTBP2 (c.2206G>A) and CTN3 (c.1268G>A) with alteration of the contraction of CM‐LT/LT cell were found to be pathogenic in complex CHD.Support or Funding InformationNational Natural Science Foundation of China (81870288, 81641017), National Central Grants for Research Institute (2017NL31001), Binhai New Area Health Bureau ( 2016BWKZ 003).This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

The maturation of stem cell derived cardiomyocytes (iCMs) is incomplete relative to the fully matured adult myocytes. Lack of maturation represents a major limitation to the applications of iCMs as heart disease models or heart failure therapies. Current attempts to promote iCMs maturation, such as prolonged culture, mechanical stretching and electronic pacing, are often based on empirical methods with poor reproducibility or little mechanistic basis. In order to better understand the molecular mechanisms driving cardiomyocyte maturation, we performed extensive transcriptome analyses in neonatal vs. adult hearts. In addition to metabolic and cell cycle regulatory pathways, Gene Ontology analysis revealed RNA splicing regulation is significantly enriched in the transcriptome reprogramming during postnatal maturation in heart. Specifically, we find a cardiomyocyte enriched RNA splicing factor Rbfox1 is dramatically induced in the perinatal maturating mouse hearts. Ectopic expression of Rbfox1 in neonatal cardiomyocytes markedly promotes the cellular and molecular features of adult cardiomyocyte, including contractility, calcium handling, sarcomere organization, morphology, electrophysiology and gene expression. Most remarkably, expression of RBFox1 in human iPSC derived cardiomyocytes promotes similar maturation process as observed in the neonatal rat myocytes. At mechanistic level, RBFox1 expression in the iCMs enhances transcriptome maturation as indicated by targeted RNA splicing in genes involved in muscle contraction, gene expression, RNA processing and sarcomere organization. In summary, we have uncovered a novel molecular path towards neonatal myocyte maturation in perinatal murine hearts by targeted modulation of cardiomyocyte transcriptome via RNA-splicing. This approach has potential to be employed as a molecular approach to promote human iCMs maturation.