Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: Loss of the Coronary Artery Disease Risk Gene Leiomodin1 in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells Triggers Rapid Onset Coronary Atherosclerosis
doi: 10.64898/2026.02.15.705944
Figure Lengend Snippet: Role of LMOD1 actin nucleation domain on CAD phenotype in Lmod1 SMKO mice. ( A ) LRR domain of mouse LMOD1 bound to an actin subunit at the pointed end of the actin filament, showing the mutated amino acids in LMOD1 ND (K444D, H448D, R455D, R470D, and R473D). Model produced based on superimposition of PDB codes 4Z79, 5WFN, and 8F8S. , Also shown at right is an SDS-PAGE gel of E. coli -expressed human LMOD1 WT and LMOD1 ND (K449D, H453D, R460D, R475D, R478D). ( B ) Time course of polymerization of 2 μM actin (6% pyrene-labelled), measured as the fluorescence increase upon incorporation of pyrene-actin into filaments. Curves represent the average of three independent experiments, color-coded by protein construct and concentration, with standard deviations (SD) shown. ( C ) Lmod1 SMKO MASMC incubated with oxLDL in the presence of Lentivirus carrying each indicated construct with quantitation of oxLDL area/nuclei. ( D ) Western blot of indicated proteins from similar experiment as in panel C . ( E ) Strategy for making the inducible Lmod1 iND mouse model. The wildtype mouse ( top ) expresses normal levels of LMOD1 from the minigene placed in first intron which is recombined out upon Cre exposure ( bottom ) enabling expression of the mutated second exon (E2-iND) which contains the five amino acid substitutions. Validation studies demonstrate the loss of Lmod1 WT and induction of Lmod1 iND mRNA ( F ) and protein ( G ) with Tagln-Cre . ( H ) CIFM of LMOD1 ( Hi, Hiii ) and ORO staining of coronary artery ( Hii, Hiv ) in Lmod1 WT and Lmod1 iND (induced with Tagln-Cre ) mice treated for 10 weeks with PCSK9/HFD. n ≥ 5 mice per genotype. Scale bars, 100 μm for CIFM and 20 μm for ORO staining.
Article Snippet: Membranes were blocked and incubated overnight at 4 °C with primary antibodies against LMOD1 (Proteintech #15117-1-AP), SRF (Cell Signaling Technology #5147S), ACTA2 (Sigma-Aldrich #A2547-0.2ML), ACTB (Affinity #T0022), GAPDH (Millipore #MAB374), ITGA8 (Santa Cruz #SC-365798), TAGLN (Abcam #ab14106), and Thrombospondin-1 (THBS1) (Abcam #ab85762) ( Table S3 ).
Techniques: Produced, SDS Page, Fluorescence, Construct, Concentration Assay, Incubation, Quantitation Assay, Western Blot, Expressing, Biomarker Discovery, Staining