Developmental SHP2 dysfunction underlies cardiac hypertrophy in Noonan syndrome with multiple lentigines

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Abstract

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a common cause of mortality in congenital heart disease (CHD). Many gene abnormalities are associated with cardiac hypertrophy, but their function in cardiac development is not well understood. Loss-of-function mutations in PTPN11, which encodes the protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) SHP2, are implicated in CHD and cause Noonan syndrome with multiple lentigines (NSML), a condition that often presents with cardiac hypertrophic defects. Here, we found that NSML-associated hypertrophy stems from aberrant signaling mechanisms originating in developing endocardium. Trabeculation and valvular hyperplasia were diminished in hearts of embryonic mice expressing a human NSML-associated variant of SHP2, and these defects were recapitulated in mice expressing NSML-associated SHP2 specifically in endothelial, but not myocardial or neural crest, cells. In contrast, mice with myocardial- but not endothelial-specific NSML SHP2 expression developed ventricular septal defects, suggesting that NSML-associated mutations have both cell-autonomous and nonautonomous functions in cardiac development. However, only endothelial-specific expression of NSML-associated SHP2 induced adult-onset cardiac hypertrophy. Further, embryos expressing the NSML-associated SHP2 mutation exhibited aberrant AKT activity and decreased downstream forkhead box P1 (FOXP1)/FGF and NOTCH1/EPHB2 signaling, indicating that SHP2 is required for regulating reciprocal crosstalk between developing endocardium and myocardium. Together, our data provide functional and disease-based evidence that aberrant SHP2 signaling during cardiac development leads to CHD and adult-onset heart hypertrophy.

Authors

Jessica Lauriol, Janel R. Cabrera, Ashbeel Roy, Kimberly Keith, Sara M. Hough, Federico Damilano, Bonnie Wang, Gabriel C. Segarra, Meaghan E. Flessa, Lauren E. Miller, Saumya Das, Roderick Bronson, Kyu-Ho Lee, Maria I. Kontaridis