The effect of Sulfonulyrea short form (SUR2A-55) overexpression on cardiac gene expression

The small splice variant of the sulfonylurea receptor protein isoform 2A (SUR2A-55) targets mitochondria and enhances mitoKATP activity. In male mice the overexpression of this protein promotes cardioprotection protecting hearts from ischemia reperfusion injury. However, it is unclear what impact this has on the female myocardium as SUR2A and KATP channels are known to be differentially expressed in male and female hearts. To define the impact of SU2R2A-55 on the female heart, RNA seq was performed on hearts from mice with cardiac specific transgenic overexpression of SUR2A-55 (TGSUR2A-55). RNA seq analysis found 227 differnetial expressed genes between WT and TGSUR2A-55 female mouse hearts that were enriched in pathways of cellular metabolism. This was in direct contrast to male mice that had only three differentially expressed genes. Future research directed at the expression and activity of mitoKATP subunits according to sex may elucidate gender specific treatments. Overall design: Hearts from male and female mice that were previously created with cardiac specific overexpression of the short form sulfonylurea receptor protein (TGSUR2A-55) were used. We performed gene expression profile analysis on 4 male and 4 female transgenic and WT mouse hearts from data obtained after RNA -seq. [contributor] University of Wisconsin – Madison Biotechnology Center Gene Expression Center (Research Resource Identifier – RRID:SCR_017757) [contributor] University of Wisconsin-Madison Biotechnology Center Bioinformatics Core Facility (Research Resource Identifier – RRID:SCR_017799)