PUBLICATION
Squamate ventricular cardiomyocytes: Ploidy, proliferation, and heart muscle cell size in the leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius)
- Authors
- Jacyniak, K., Barrera Jaimes, K., Doan, M.H., Chartrand, J.M., Vickaryous, M.K.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-250317-5
- Date
- 2025
- Source
- Developmental Dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists : (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Keywords
- cardiac muscle, cardiomyocyte replacement, heart, hyperplasia, mitosis, postnatal development
- MeSH Terms
-
- Cell Size
- Cell Proliferation*/physiology
- Ploidies*
- Heart Ventricles*/cytology
- Lizards*/genetics
- Animals
- Myocytes, Cardiac*/cytology
- Myocytes, Cardiac*/physiology
- PubMed
- 40088131 Full text @ Dev. Dyn.
Citation
Jacyniak, K., Barrera Jaimes, K., Doan, M.H., Chartrand, J.M., Vickaryous, M.K. (2025) Squamate ventricular cardiomyocytes: Ploidy, proliferation, and heart muscle cell size in the leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius). Developmental Dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists. :.
Abstract
Background While heart function is broadly conserved across vertebrates, the cellular phenotype of muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) varies across taxa and throughout ontogeny. Emerging evidence suggests that some attributes may correlate with the capacity for spontaneous cardiomyocyte replacement following injury. For example, among non-regenerating taxa like adult mammals and birds, cardiomyocytes are polyploid, rarely proliferate, and are large in size. In contrast, in regeneration-competent zebrafish and amphibians, cardiomyocytes are diploid, spontaneously proliferate, and are comparatively small. For other species, less is known.
Results Here, we investigate these attributes in the squamate Eublepharis macularius, the leopard gecko. Using the nuclear counterstain DAPI to measure fluorescence intensity as a proxy for DNA content, we found that >90% of adult cardiomyocytes are diploid. Using serial histology and immunostaining for markers of DNA synthesis and mitosis, we determined that adult gecko cardiomyocytes spontaneously proliferate, albeit at significantly lower levels than previously reported in subadults. Furthermore, using wheat germ agglutinin, we found that the cross-sectional area is maintained across ontogeny and that gecko cardiomyocytes are 10× smaller than those of mice.
Conclusions Taken together, our data show that gecko cardiomyocytes share several key cellular attributes with regeneration-competent species and that postnatal ventricular growth occurs via cardiomyocyte hyperplasia.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping