| First Author | Wu H | Year | 1999 |
| Journal | Development | Volume | 126 |
| Issue | 16 | Pages | 3597-605 |
| PubMed ID | 10409505 | Mgi Jnum | J:53885 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:1340209 | Doi | 10.1242/dev.126.16.3597 |
| Citation | Wu H, et al. (1999) Inactivation of erythropoietin leads to defects in cardiac morphogenesis. Development 126(16):3597-605 |
| abstractText | Erythropoietin is an essential growth factor that promotes survival, proliferation, and differentiation of mammalian erythroid progenitor cells. Erythropoietin(-/-) and erythropoietin receptor(-/-) mouse embryos die around embryonic day 13.5 due, in part, to failure of erythropoiesis in the fetal liver. In this study, we demonstrated a novel role of erythropoietin and erythropoietin receptor in cardiac development in vivo. We found that erythropoietin receptor is expressed in the developing murine heart in a temporal and cell type-specific manner: it is initially detected by embryonic day 10.5 and persists until day 14.5. Both erythropoietin(-/-) and erythropoietin receptor(-/-) embryos suffered from ventricular hypoplasia at day 12-13 of gestation. This defect appears to be independent from the general state of hypoxia and is likely due to a reduction in the number of proliferating cardiac myocytes in the ventricular myocardium. Cell proliferation assays revealed that erythropoietin acts as a mitogen in cells isolated from erythropoietin(-/-) mice, while it has no effect in hearts from erythropoietin receptor(-/-) animals. Erythropoietin(-/-) and erythropoietin receptor(-/-) embryos also suffered from epicardium detachment and abnormalities in the vascular network. Finally, through a series of chimeric analysis, we provided evidence that erythropoietin acts in a manner which is non-cell-autonomous. Our results elucidate a novel role of erythropoietin in cardiac morphogenesis and suggest a combination of anemia and cardiac failure as the cause of embryonic lethality in the erythropoietin(-/-) and erythropoietin receptor(-/-) animals. |
