Gülsüm Kayman Kürekçi

After injury, the adult human heart fails to regenerate and forms a persistent fibrotic scar. By contrast, fibrosis is transient in the injured zebrafish heart, facilitating cell recruitment and providing regenerative cues. The mechanisms that restrain excessive fibrosis while enabling regeneration remain poorly understood. Here we show that fibulin-2 (Fbln2) regulates specific populations of activated epicardial cells to balance the response to cardiac injury. Using genetic tools for Fbln2 dosage, we find that attenuation of epicardial activation stimulates regenerative programs. Mechanistically, we identify epicardial nuclear protein 1b (Nupr1b) as an Fbln2 effector. Using gain- and loss-of-function approaches, we show that Nupr1b controls epicardial myofibroblast abundance. Notably, epicardial-specific overexpression of nupr1b rescued fbln2 mutant phenotypes. These findings shed light on how modulation of epicardial cell state transitions through Fbln2–Nupr1b signaling regulates regenerative responses after cardiac injury.

Lamina-associated polypeptide 1 (LAP1) is a ubiquitously expressed inner nuclear membrane protein encoded by TOR1AIP1, and presents as two isoforms in humans, LAP1B and LAP1C. While loss of both isoforms results in a multisystemic progeroid-like syndrome, specific loss of LAP1B causes muscular dystrophy and cardiomyopathy, suggesting that LAP1B has a critical role in striated muscle. To gain more insight into the molecular pathophysiology underlying muscular dystrophy caused by LAP1B, we established a patient-derived fibroblast line that was transdifferentiated into myogenic cells using inducible MyoD expression. Compared to the controls, we observed strongly reduced myogenic differentiation and fusion potentials. Similar defects were observed in the C2C12 murine myoblasts carrying loss-of-function LAP1A/B mutations. Using RNA sequencing, we found that, despite MyoD overexpression and efficient cell cycle exit, transcriptional reprogramming of the LAP1B-deficient cells into the myogenic lineage is impaired with delayed activation of MYOG and muscle-specific genes. Gene set enrichment analyses suggested dysregulations of protein metabolism, extracellular matrix, and chromosome organization. Finally, we found that the LAP1B-deficient cells exhibit nuclear deformations, such as an increased number of micronuclei and altered morphometric parameters. This study uncovers the phenotypic and transcriptomic changes occurring during myoconversion of patient-derived LAP1B-deficient fibroblasts and provides a useful resource to gain insights into the mechanisms implicated in LAP1B-associated nuclear envelopathies.