Background: Syndecan-1 and fibroglycan, heparan sulphate proteoglycans, play important roles in extracellular matrix formation via their biological functions.
Objective: To examine experimentally the sequential changes in syndecan-1 and fibroglycan messenger RNA (mRNA) expression after acute myocardial infarction.
Materials and methods: The left coronary arteries of male Sprague-Dawley rats were ligated and the hearts were excised on days 1-14, 28 and 42. Syndecan-1 and fibroglycan mRNA expression in the infarct and non-infarct zones and in sham-operated hearts was determined by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Amplified products were quantified by densitometry of the electrophoresed bands stained with ethidium bromide and standardized relative to the glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase or beta-actin mRNA expression. Northern hybridization was also performed in the infarct and non-infarct zones on day 3.
Results: Expression both of syndecan-1 and of fibroglycan mRNA began to increase on day 2. The expression attained maximum levels on day 3. The maximum levels of syndecan-1 and fibroglycan expression were, respectively, sevenfold and fivefold the preligation level and the level in the sham-operated hearts. The levels remained elevated until day 14, whereupon they declined gradually, returning to the control levels by around day 42. Northern blotting also demonstrated that there was an increased expression both of syndecan-1 and of fibroglycan mRNA in the infarct compared with that in the non-infarct zone on day 3.
Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that there are sequential increases in the expression both of syndecan-1 and of fibroglycan mRNA in the infarct zone after experimentally induced myocardial infarction in rats, suggesting that these proteoglycans play some role in the pathological course of infarction.