Primary cilia are non-motile plasma membrane extrusions that display a variety of receptors and mechanosensors. Loss of function results in ciliopathies, which have been strongly linked with congenital heart disease, as well as abnormal development and function of most organ systems. Here we explore primary cilia’s role in acquired heart disease. Intraflagellar Transport 88 knockout results in reduced primary cilia, and knockout from cardiac endothelium produces myxomatous degeneration similar to mitral valve prolapse seen in adult humans. Induced primary cilia inactivation by other mechanisms also produces excess myocardial hypertrophy and altered scar architecture after ischemic injury, as well as hypertension due to a lack of vascular endothelial nitric oxide synthase activation and the resultant left ventricular dysfunction. Finally, primary cilia have cell-to-cell transmission capacity which, when blocked, leads to progressive left ventricular hypertrophy and heart failure, though this mechanism has not been fully established. Further research is still needed to understand primary cilia’s role in adult cardiac pathology, especially heart failure.
Primary cilia are extrusions of the plasma membrane that display a variety of receptors and mechanosensors. The core structure is an axoneme of nine doublet microtubules that extend from a basal body, and they are therefore referred to as “9 + 0” cilia. This distinguishes them from motile “9 + 2” cilia, which have an additional two dynein-associated central microtubules, permitting motion.[1]
As primary cilia do not intrinsically have associated ribosomes, they instead rely on the intraflagellar transport (IFT) system to ferry receptors and other proteins into and out of the cilium.[2] This system is capable of bidirectional movement along the length of the flagella, between the outer doublet of microtubules and the flagellar membrane.[3][4] IFT proteins, especially Ift88, are often knockout targets in cilia research, as their inactivation results in the absence of primary cilia in the affected cell.[5][6]
For classification purposes, first-order ciliopathies are those diseases which occur due to a mutation in genes required for the proper assembly, maintenance, or function of the cilia or the related centriole; second-order ciliopathies occur due to dysregulation of further upstream factors, such as the nuclear transcription factors Atf3, Tsc22d4, and Cbx5.[13][14] There are at least 300–1000 first-order, and many more second-order, genes.[13][15][16]
The importance of proper cilia function in the embryonic heart has been well established.[34][6][35][36] In a comprehensive analysis of over 87,000 mutagenized mouse fetuses, Li et al. identified 61 genes in which mutations were capable of producing echocardiographically identifiable congenital heart defects, and 35 of these genes encoded either motile or primary cilia proteins. An additional 16 genes were involved in cilia-transduced cell signaling, and 10 regulated vesicular trafficking, which is necessary for proper cilia function.[34]
In addition to myxomatous degeneration of the valve, patients with MVP also show progressive left ventricular fibrosis. Cardiac fibrosis is an excessive production and deposition of scar tissue, often a result of conditions such as hypertension or diabetes mellitus, and can lead to increased tissue stiffness, cardiomyocyte atrophy, and arrhythmias.[40][41] The fibrosis observed with MVP is more significant than that seen in patients with primary mitral valve regurgitation from a non-MVP etiology, which may suggest a common cause for both excessive fibrosis and MVP.[42]
In addition to native cardiac fibroblast proliferation, endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) is now recognized as an important source of fibroblasts for perivascular and subendocardial fibrosis.[44] Knockdown of Ift88 in endothelial cells, which results in the absence of primary cilia on these cells, appears to be insufficient to directly induce EndMT in vivo but may prime these cells for EndMT in response to lower stress than would otherwise be required.[45][46]
One possible mechanism appears to be via ciliary extracellular-like vesicles (cELVs).[61] These vesicles are released from cilia under normal circumstances and at increased rates under fluid shear stress. Blocking ciliary proteins necessary for cELV production using short hairpin RNA (shRNA) prevents cELV production and results in left ventricular hypertrophy, decreasing left ventricular ejection fraction, and, eventually, low blood pressure and cardiovascular collapse.[61][62]