Rapamycin treatment unmasks a sex‐specific pattern of scar expansion of the infarcted rat heart: The relationship between mTOR and K_ATP channel

Abstract

Inhibition of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) with the macrolide rapamycin or pharmacological suppression of KATP channel opening translated to scar expansion of the myocardial infarcted (MI) adult female rodent heart. The present study tested the hypotheses that rapamycin‐mediated scar expansion was sex‐specific and that mTOR signaling directly influenced KATP channel subunit expression/activity. Scar size was significantly larger in post‐MI male rats as compared to the previous data reported in post‐MI female rats. The reported scar expansion of rapamycin‐treated post‐MI female rats was not observed following the administration of the macrolide to post‐MI male rats. Protein levels of the KATP channel subunits Kir6.2 and SUR2A and phosphorylation of the serine2448 residue of mTOR were similar in the normal heart of adult male and female rats. By contrast, greater tuberin inactivation characterized by the increased phosphorylation of the threonine1462 residue and reduced raptor protein levels were identified in the normal heart of adult female rats. Rapamycin pretreatment of phorbol 12,13‐dibutyrate (PDBu)‐treated neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes (NNVMs) suppressed hypertrophy, inhibited p70S6K phosphorylation, and attenuated SUR2A protein upregulation. In the presence of low ATP levels, KATP channel activity detected in untreated NNVMs was significantly attenuated in PDBu‐induced hypertrophied NNVMs via a rapamycin‐independent pathway. Thus, rapamycin administration to post‐MI rats unmasked a sex‐specific pattern of scar expansion and mTOR signaling in PDBu‐induced hypertrophied NNVMs significantly increased SUR2A protein levels. However, the biological advantage associated with SUR2A protein upregulation was partially offset by an mTOR‐independent pathway that attenuated KATP channel activity in PDBu‐induced hypertrophied NNVMs.