Aldosterone-specific activation of cardiomyocyte mineralocorticoid receptor in vivo

Inappropriate mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) activation is involved in cardiac diseases. Whether and how aldosterone is involved in the deleterious effects of cardiac mineralocorticoid activation is still unclear. Mice overexpressing MR in cardiomyocytes and their controls were treated for 7 days with aldosterone, and cardiac transcriptome was analyzed. Aldosterone regulated 265 genes in cardiomyocyte-targeted MR overexpression mice. Forty three of these genes were also differentially expressed between untreated cardiomyocyte-targeted MR overexpression and controls mice, thus representing putative aldosterone-regulated genes in cardiomyocytes. Among these genes, we focused on connective tissue growth factor (CTGF). In vivo, in cardiomyocyte-targeted MR overexpression mice, aldosterone (but not corticosterone) induced CTGF expression (mRNA and protein) in cardiomyocytes. Ex vivo, aldosterone induced the binding of mineralocorticoid receptor to CTGF promoter and increased the expression of its transcript. Aldosterone induction of CTGF synthesis in cardiomyocytes seems pathologically relevant as the increase in CTGF observed in a model of heart failure (transverse aortic constriction) in rats was prevented by eplerenone, a mineralocorticoid receptor blocker. This study demonstrates that aldosterone specifically regulates gene expression in cardiomyocytes despite large prevalence of glucocorticoids in plasma.