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. 2016 May;20(5):973-9.
doi: 10.1111/jcmm.12815. Epub 2016 Mar 14.

Telocytes in exercise-induced cardiac growth

Junjie Xiao  1 , Ping Chen  1   2 , Yi Qu  2 , Pujiao Yu  3 , Jianhua Yao  4 , Hongbao Wang  4 , Siyi Fu  1 , Yihua Bei  1 , Yan Chen  3 , Lin Che  3 , Jiahong Xu  3
Affiliations

Telocytes in exercise-induced cardiac growth

Junjie Xiao et al. J Cell Mol Med. 2016 May.

Abstract

Exercise can induce physiological cardiac growth, which is featured by enlarged cardiomyocyte cell size and formation of new cardiomyocytes. Telocytes (TCs) are a recently identified distinct interstitial cell type, existing in many tissues and organs including heart. TCs have been shown to form a tandem with cardiac stem/progenitor cells in cardiac stem cell niches, participating in cardiac regeneration and repair. Although exercise-induced cardiac growth has been confirmed as an important way to promote cardiac regeneration and repair, the response of cardiac TCs to exercise is still unclear. In this study, 4 weeks of swimming training was used to induce robust healthy cardiac growth. Exercise can induce an increase in cardiomyocyte cell size and formation of new cardiomyocytes as determined by Wheat Germ Lectin and EdU staining respectively. TCs were identified by three immunofluorescence stainings including double labelling for CD34/vimentin, CD34/platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) receptor-α and CD34/PDGF receptor-β. We found that cardiac TCs were significantly increased in exercised heart, suggesting that TCs might help control the activity of cardiac stem/progenitor cells, cardiomyocytes or endothelial cells. Adding cardiac TCs might help promote cardiac regeneration and renewal.

Keywords: CD34; PDGFR-α, β; exercise; heart; telocytes; vimentin.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Exercise induces healthy cardiac growth. Representative images of general view of the heart (A), heart weight (B), heart weight/body weight ratio (C), heart weight/tibia length ratio (D), and relative ANP (E) and BNP (F) mRNA levels demonstrated that healthy cardiac growth was established after swimming training, scale bar = 2 mm. n = 5 for A–C while n = 4 for E and F. Compared to controls, *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Exercise increases cardiomyocyte cell size and formation of new cardiomyocytes. Exercise increases cardiomyocyte cell size as determined by Wheat Germ Lectin (WGA) staining (A) and induces formation of new cardiomyocytes as determined by EdU staining (B), scale bar = 20 μm, n = 5. Compared to controls, *P < 0.05.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Telocytes (TCs) are increased in exercised heart. (A) Representative images of double immunostainings for cardiac TCs as determined by CD34/Vimentin, CD34/PDGFR‐α, and CD34/PDGFR‐β. Cardiac TCs are increased in response to exercise as determined by double immunofluorescence labelling for CD34/Vimentin (B), CD34/PDGFR‐α (C), and CD34/PDGFR‐β (D), scale bar = 20 μm, n = 5. Compared to controls, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.
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