TY - JOUR T1 - Loss of Caveolin-1 and caveolae leads to increased cardiac cell stiffness and functional decline of the adult zebrafish heart JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2020.01.16.909267 SP - 2020.01.16.909267 AU - Dimitrios Grivas AU - Álvaro González-Rajal AU - Carlos Guerrero Rodríguez AU - Ricardo Garcia AU - José Luis de la Pompa Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/01/16/2020.01.16.909267.abstract N2 - Caveolin-1 is the main structural protein of caveolae, small membrane invaginations involved in signal transduction and mechanoprotection. Here, we generated cav1-KO zebrafish lacking Cav1 and caveolae, and investigated the impact of this loss on adult heart function and response to cryoinjury. We found that cardiac function was impaired in adult cav1-KO fish, which showed a significantly decreased ejection fraction and heart rate. Using atomic force microscopy, we detected an increase in the stiffness of epicardial cells and cortical myocardium lacking Cav1/caveolae. This loss of cardiac elasticity might explain the decreased cardiac contraction and function. Surprisingly, cav1-KO mutants were able to regenerate their heart after a cryoinjury but showed a transient decrease in cardiomyocyte proliferation. ER -