The transcriptome responses of cardiomyocyte exposed to hypothermia

Hypothermia has positive and negative consequences on the body. Hypothermia depresses myocardial contraction, conduction, and metabolic rate in the heart. However, little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms. Herein, we compared the gene expression of human adult ventricular cardiomyocytes (AC16) under hypothermia to find differences between different temperatures, and elucidate the candidate genes that may play important roles in the response to hypothermia. A total of 2413 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by microarray hybridization, which provided abundant data for further analysis. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis revealed that genes related to transcription, and protein and lipid metabolism were significantly enriched. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis showed that DEGs were significantly enriched in TGF-β pathway and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, which may play important roles in changes affected by hypothermia. A set of transcription factors (TFs) (CPBP, Churchill, NF-AT1, GKLF, SRY, ZNF333, ING4, myogenin, DRI1 and CRX) was recognized to be the functional layer of key nodes, which mapped the signal of hypothermia to transcriptome. The identified DEGs, pathways and predicted TFs could facilitate further investigations of the detailed molecular mechanisms.