Pentraxin 3 depletion (PTX3 KD) inhibited myocardial fibrosis in heart failure after myocardial infarction

Background: HF is a common complication of MI. The underlying mechanisms of myocardial fibrosis in HF after MI are incompletely defined. Here, this study aims to investigate the role of PTX3 KD in HF after MI.

Methods: Bioinformatics analysis based on GSE86569 dataset was performed to explore the potential role of PTX3 in HF. Male C57/BL6J mice were administered with lentiviral vector encoding PTX3 KD or empty vector, and then underwent either coronary ligation or sham surgery. Echocardiography, Masson staining, and immunofluorescence counterstaining were conducted to evaluate the cardiac function and fibrosis. Cardiac fibroblasts were isolated and transfected with lentiviral vector encoding PTX3 KD in vitro to verify the in vivo findings.

Results: Bioinformatics analysis based on GSE86569 revealed the aberrant expression of PTX3 in HF patients. Echocardiography showed that PTX3 KD reversed the HF-induced cardiac dysfunction with better cardiac function parameters. Masson staining demonstrated that the obvious infarct and high fibrosis ratio in HF mice were remarkably improved after PTX3 KD. Immunofluorescence staining indicated that the HF-induced increase expression of α-SMA was significantly suppressed by PTX3 KD. Additionally, both in vivo and in vitro results confirmed that PTX3 KD decreased the fibrosis-related up-regulation of collagen I, collagen III, and p-STAT3. However, the result was opposite after IL-6 treatment.

Conclusions: PTX3 KD protects the cardiac function and counteracts the myocardial fibrosis by down-regulating IL-6/STAT3 pathway in HF.