Smyd5 Regulates Hypertrophic Growth in the Heart

Heart disease is the most financially debilitating and fatal disease between both men and women in the United States. Heart failure is defined as the point at which the heart’s ability to function declines, due to overexertion, and can no longer sufficiently pump blood to vital organs throughout the body. While there are different forms of heart disease the pathophysiology of these is largely conserved: the heart compensates for an increased work load by undergoing hypertrophic growth and ultimately progresses onto heart failure. The Smyd family of histone methyltransferases has been studied for their involvement in cell growth during development and disease and is thought to accomplish this by regulating gene expression through histone methylation. While the roles of Smyd1, 2, and 3 are beginning to be defined, the remaining two family members, Smyd4 and 5, are virtually uncharacterized. My hypothesis is that Smyd5 is involved in inhibiting hypertrophic growth in the myocardium, however, its role in the ...