ENDOGENOUS RETROVIRAL TRANSCRIPTS IN MYOCYTES FROM SPONTANEOUSLY HYPERTENSIVE RATS

The spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) is a well studied animal mode l of genetic hypertension and heart disease of unknown cause. With the use of differential display, a transcript was found in SHR myocardium that on sequence analysis was identified as an endogenous retrovirus (ERV). ERV gene expression was greater than an order of magnitude incr eased in adult SHR hearts relative to age-matched normotensive Wistar- Kyoto rats and was further increased in hearts from SHR with heart fai lure. In situ hybridization studies demonstrated that increased ERV ge ne expression was localized to myocardial cells. Increases in ERV tran scripts in SHR suggest a possible link between inherited proviral elem ents and genetic hypertensive heart disease.