Identification of nascent cardiovascular proteomes by cell-type-specific metabolic labeling in experimental sepsis mouse model
Authors: Dumont Audrey-Ann , Kpegba Dhyana , Dumont Lauralyne , Bentzinger C. Florian , Blondin Denis , Lesur Olivier , Coquerel David , Auger-Messier Mannix 
Published: May 2023

BACKGROUND – Sepsis is characterized by an overwhelming systemic inflammatory response to infection that may lead to multiple organ failure and death in over 20% of the estimated 49 million annual cases worldwide. Because sepsis-related inflammatory processes disturbing cardiac and endothelial cells homeostasis are still poorly understood, only few therapeutic strategies reached added-value efficacy in terms of mortality reduction in the critical care units. Using an innovative transgenic mouse line to detect the acute changes of newly synthetized proteins, we propose to assess the protein expression profile of cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells in a murine model of polymicrobial sepsis. METHODS – The Cre-recombinase mediated expression of mutant L274G-methionyl-tRNA synthetase (MetRS*) in transgenic mouse crosses enables the selective in vivo incorporation of azidonorleucine (ANL), a non-canonical methionine analog, in newly synthetized proteins. MetRS* mice expressing CDH5-creERT2 (CDH5, endothelial cells) or αMHC-MerCreMer (MCM, cardiomyocytes) underwent CLP (cecal ligation and puncture). The sepsis model was validated by echocardiography, inflammatory cytokine profiling and histology. Labeling efficiency of nascent proteins from MCM and CDH5 cells (heart and lung) were visualized by FUNCAT (Fluorescence non-canonical amino acid tagging) or purified by BONCAT (bioorthogonal non-canonical amino acid tagging) for mass spectrometry analysis. RESULTS – Significant elevation of circulating inflammatory cytokines proves the systemic inflammatory state of mice submitted to CLP compared to SHAM mice. Our experimental model also displays a significant impairment of the LV function at both systolic (reduced cardiac index) and diastolic levels (increased E/A and isovolumic relaxation time) confirming hemodynamics alteration related to sepsis. Metascape analysis showed expression changes for several proteins involved in the acute response to stress in both MCM and CDH5 samples. Overall, nascent protein synthesis is mainly reduced in MCM samples in sepsis (14 up/98 down), something not observed in CDH5 samples both in the heart (69 up/97 down) and in the lungs (137 up/43 down). Alterations in metabolic pathways such as pyruvate metabolism and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis were only observed in MCM samples while protein associated with focal adhesion, for example, was observed in heart and lungs CDH5 samples. CONCLUSIONS – The results of this study provide a better understanding of which proteins are altered in specific cell types in a sepsis model. We confirmed previously identified markers of inflammatory response in tissues, while identifying new protein candidates and signaling pathways that may contribute to key steps of sepsis detrimental effects and thus, offering potential new therapeutic avenues to curb the fatal outcomes of this disease.

Supported by Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) - Project Grants (399567)

This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.