Cardiovascular diseases are among the leading causes of death in North America. Currently, there are no effective treatment options for directly repairing the damaged myocardial tissue. Therefore, cell-based therapies utilizing cardiomyocytes generated from stem cells to replace necrotic tissue will be a promising approach. However, the molecular mechanisms regulating stem cell differentiation into cardiomyocytes are not fully understood. Since GATA-4 is one of the primary regulators of cradiomyogenesis, we investigated the molecular basis of GATA-4 expression during the early stages of stem cell differentiation. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation, we have observed the direct involvement of p300 in GATA-4 gene expression. We have also examined the importance ofhHistone acetylation and acetyltransferase activity on GATA-4 expression during the early stage of cardiomyogensis using the histone deactylase inhibitor Valproic Acid and the acetyltransferase inhibitor Curcumin respectively.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/31993 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Yilbas, Ayse Elif |
| Contributors | Li, Qiao |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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