Description:

The Department of Pharmacology is pleased to present a seminar by Northwestern's Dr. Lisa Wilsbacher M.D., Ph D., Assistant Professor, Medicine-Cardiology, Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute and Pharmacology.

The following is an overview of this seminar, as described by Dr. Wilsbacher:

Sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) is a bioactive lipid that acts via G protein-coupled receptors. The S1P receptor S1P1 (encoded by S1pr1) is expressed in the developing heart, but its roles in cardiomyocytes remain largely unexplored. Our studies revealed that cardiac-specific conditional knockout of S1pr1 led to ventricular noncompaction due to decreased cardiomyocyte proliferation in mutants. Furthermore, deletion of S1pr1 at a later developmental stage allowed normal heart development, but these mutants developed cardiac fibrosis. These findings demonstrate that cardiomyocyte S1P1 plays a previously unknown and necessary role in cardiac development and cardiomyocyte maintenance in mice.