Skip to main content

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Atherosclerosis and Vascular Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2025.1492768

Inducing Hypertension in Myh11 R247C/R247C Mice Triggers Aortic Dissections with Increased Focal Adhesion Kinase Signaling

Provisionally accepted
Callie Kwartler Callie Kwartler 1*Shanzhi Wang Shanzhi Wang 1Zhen Zhou Zhen Zhou 1Pujun Guan Pujun Guan 1Yang Yu Yang Yu 1Xue-Yan Duan Xue-Yan Duan 1Theodore Zhang Theodore Zhang 1Jiyuan Chen Jiyuan Chen 1Elaine C Davis Elaine C Davis 2Dianna Milewicz Dianna Milewicz 1*
  • 1 University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, United States
  • 2 McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: We sought to determine if hypertension in combination with a “variant of uncertain significance” that disrupts protein function, MYH11 p.Arg247Cys, would induce aortic dissections in a mouse model. Approach and Results: Administration of L-NAME via drinking water and a high salt diet increased blood pressure in WT and Myh11R247C/R247C mice and triggered type A dissections with cardiac tamponade in 20% of the Myh11R247C/R247C mice. Myh11R247C/R247C aortas have aberrant smooth muscle contractile unit-elastin connections by transmission electron microscopy, along with increased focal adhesion signaling at baseline, which further increases with hypertension.Conclusion: Gene-environment interactions trigger aortic dissections in Myh11R247C/R247C mice.

    Keywords: myosin heavy chain, focal adhesion, elastin-contractile unit, thoracic aortic dissection Subject code: vascular disease, aortic dissection, Smooth muscle cell (SMC)

    Received: 07 Sep 2024; Accepted: 31 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Kwartler, Wang, Zhou, Guan, Yu, Duan, Zhang, Chen, Davis and Milewicz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Callie Kwartler, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, United States
    Dianna Milewicz, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.