Cardiac ventricular chambers are epigenetically distinguishable

Abstract

The left and right ventricles are muscular chambers of the heart that differ significantly in the extent of pressure workload. The regional and differential distribution of gene expression patterns is critical not only for heart development, but, also in the establishment of cardiac hypertrophy phenotypes. The cells of the myocardium employ elaborate regulatory mechanisms to establish changes in chromatin structure and function, yet, the role of epigenetic modifications and specific gene expression patterns in cardiac ventricles remains poorly understood. We have examined gene expression changes and studied histone H3 and H4 acetylation as well as dimethylation of lysine 4 on histone H3 on p..