Cardiac resident macrophage-derived legumain improves cardiac repair via promoting clearance and degradation of apoptotic cardiomyocytes after myocardial infarction

During the acute inflammatory phase of MI, the amount of necrotic and apoptotic cardiomyocytes is a critical determinant of the severity of adverse remodeling that leads HF. The inefficient clearance of dying cardiomyocytes is important to suboptimal tissue remodeling after MI. Macrophages are the main immune cells after MI, playing important roles in clearance of necrotic and apoptotic cardiomyocytes. LGMN is specifically required for the clearance and degradation of dying adult cardiomyocytes. LGMN deficiency impact the ability of macrophages to clearing apoptotic cardiomyocytes after MI. We used RNA sequencing to examine the gene expression profiles of the macrophages sorted from the hearts of LGMN-KO and WT mice after MI, especially genes associated with phagocytic function. Overall design: MRNA profiles of cardiac macrophages of Lgmn-KO and WT mice after MI