Necessity of angiotensin-converting enzyme-related gene for cardiac functions and longevity of Drosophila melanogaster assessed by optical coherence tomography

Fang-Tsu Liao; Cheng-Yi Chang; Ming-Tsan Su; Wen-Chuan Kuo

doi:10.1117/1.JBO.19.1.011014

3 September 2013 Necessity of angiotensin-converting enzyme-related gene for cardiac functions and longevity of Drosophila melanogaster assessed by optical coherence tomography

Fang-Tsu Liao, Cheng-Yi Chang, Ming-Tsan Su, Wen-Chuan Kuo

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Journal of Biomedical Optics, Vol. 19, Issue 1, 011014 (September 2013). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.19.1.011014

Abstract

Prior studies have established the necessity of an angiotensin-converting enzyme-related (ACER) gene for heart morphogenesis of Drosophila. Nevertheless, the physiology of ACER has yet to be comprehensively understood. Herein, we employed RNA interference to down-regulate the expression of ACER in Drosophila’s heart and swept source optical coherence tomography to assess whether ACER is required for cardiac functions in living adult flies. Several contractile parameters of Drosophila heart, including the heart rate (HR), end-diastolic diameter (EDD), end-systolic diameter (ESD), percent fractional shortening (%FS), and stress-induced cardiac performance, are shown, which are age dependent. These age-dependent cardiac functions declined significantly when ACER was down-regulated. Moreover, the lifespans of ACER knock-down flies were significantly shorter than those of wild-type control flies. Thus, we posit that ACER, the Drosophila ortholog of mammalian angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), is essential for both heart physiology and longevity of animals. Since mammalian ACE2 controls many cardiovascular physiological features and is implicated in cardiomyopathies, our findings that ACER plays conserved roles in genetically tractable animals will pave the way for uncovering the genetic pathway that controls the renin-angiotensin system.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

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Fang-Tsu Liao, Cheng-Yi Chang, Ming-Tsan Su, and Wen-Chuan Kuo "Necessity of angiotensin-converting enzyme-related gene for cardiac functions and longevity of Drosophila melanogaster assessed by optical coherence tomography," Journal of Biomedical Optics 19(1), 011014 (3 September 2013). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.19.1.011014

Published: 3 September 2013

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