Increased transcript expression levels of DNA methyltransferases type 1 and 3A during cardiac muscle long-term cell culture

Heart failure (HF) is one of the main causes of death worldwide. Recent studies reported altered DNA methylation in failing human hearts. This may suggest a role of DNA methylation, most frequently implicated in epigenetic control, in the development of heart failure. Here, employing RT-qPCR, we characterized transcript levels for main DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs), DNMT1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B, mediate DNA methylation, and they have different functions that complement each other during methylation. All analyzes were performed at different stages of porcine myocardial cell primary culture. In the present study we demonstrated increasing transcript expression levels for all analyzed genes during in vitro cultivation. The changes for DNMT1 and DNMT3A seem to be particularly important, where statistically significant changes were observed.

Running title: DNMTs role in cardiac muscle cell culture