Keratin5-BMP4 mechanosignaling network regulates cell cytoskeletal reorganization and chromatin accessibility during revascularization-based blastema regeneration

Heart regeneration after myocardial infarction remains challenging due to scar and ischemia-reperfusion injury. Here, we show that zebrafish blastema regeneration can effectively resalvage the wound myocardium and blood clot through cytoplasmic exocytosis and nuclear reorganization. The cell remodeling process are also visualized by spatiotemporal expression of three core blastema genes: alpha-SMA- which marks for fibrogenesis, Flk1for angiogenesis/hematopoiesis, Pax3a for remusculogensis, and by characteristic chromatin depositions of H3K9Ac/H3K9Me3. Genome-wide enhancer identification links the depositions of the two histone marks to the chromatin state and these three core blastema cell phenotypes. When the blastema subcellular fractions are introduced into the cultured zebrafish embryonic fibroblasts the altered transcription profile is comparable to the blastema transcription in terms of extracellular matrix structural constituent, vasculature development/angiogenesis, and cardiac muscle regeneration. From the subcellular fractions we identify 15 extracellular components and intermediate filaments, and show that introduction of human Krt5 and noggin peptides conversely regulate PAC2 cells F-actin reorganization, chromatin depositions of H3K9Ac/ H3K9Me3 and phosphorylation of Smad, which are accompanied by characteristic transcriptions of bmp, bmp4, three core blastema genes as well as specific histone acetylation/methylation-related genes. Collectively, this study establishes a new Krt5-BMP4 mechanosignaling cascade that links extracellular molecules to chromatin modifications and regulates blastema cell remodeling, thus providing mechanistic insights into the mesoderm-derived blastema regeneration and underlining a therapy strategy for myocardial infarction.