Analysis on the biological significance of Runx1 in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes

RUNX family transcription factor 1 (Runx1) is well known as a dedifferentiation marker of cardiomyocytes. Recent studies suggest that the dedifferentiation is a critical event for cardiomyocyte proliferation in zebrafish hearts and neonatal mammalian hearts. However, little is known about the biological function of Runx1 in cardiomyocyte proliferation. In this study, we demonstrated that Runx1 was induced in response to the proliferative stimulus in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (NRCMs) and that the adenoviral overexpression of Runx1 promoted their proliferation. To clarify the molecular mechanism, we compared the gene expression profile between the NRCMs transfected with adenoviral vector expressing Runx1 and those with the control vector, by RNA-sequencing analysis.