Differential and dramatic changes of cyclin-dependent kinase activities in cardiomyocytes during the neonatal period.

The molecular mechanisms that arrest cardiomyocytes in the cell cycle during the postnatal period remain largely unknown. We have examined changes of the expression of cyclins and CDKs, the activity of each CDK in cardiomyocytes during the postnatal period, and have compared those changes with rate of binucleation formation of cardiomyocytes in rats. The mRNA and protein levels of cyclin D1, A and B in cardiomyocytes were high at day 1, then the levels decreased at different rates during the postnatal period. While the protein levels of cyclin A and B rapidly decreased, the protein level of cyclin D1 was relatively constant. The protein levels of CDK4, CDK2, and cdc2 in cardiomyocytes were high at day 1, then their levels gradually decreased. However, the activity of CDK4, which is responsible for G1 phase of cell cycle, was detectable only at day 1. The activity of CDK2 activity, which is responsible for the S phase of cell cycle, was relatively high at day 1, decreased at day 2, abruptly decreased at day 4, maintained the same low level until day 10, and barely or not detectable thereafter in cardiomyocytes. The activity of cdc2 was high at day 1, increased by 20% at day 2, and then gradually decreased thereafter, although approximately 50% of maximum activity was present at day 6. Most cardiomyocytes were mononucleated during the first 2 days postnatal. The percentage of binucleated cardiomyocytes increased from 2.5% at day 2, 14% at day 4, 50% at day 8, 80% at day 14, and had reached adult levels at day 21 after birth. During active binucleation formation in neonatal (from days 1-14) cardiomyocytes, CDK4 or CDK2 was functionally negligible, while cdc2 was functionally active. These data suggest that there were differential and dramatic decrease of CDK4 and CDK2 activities in cardiomyocytes during neonatal period, and the functionally active cdc2 in neonatal cardiomyocytes may be involved in binucleation formation.