Our laboratory has several specific interests, revolving around applying the tools of molecular biology to the study transcriptional regulation in cellular and animal models of cardiac hypertrophy and failure. Specific projects include examining the cardiac regulation of 2 oxidative phosphorylation genes whose products increase when cardiac myocytes hypertrophy. Techniques include cell line and cardiac myocyte culture, transient transfection, models of hypertrophic stimulation as well as mouse aortic banded and pulmonary artery banded cat models. Additional effort is being put in an effort to use adenoviral vectors to allow transient transfection into adult cardiac myocytes. Cardiac-specific tanscriptional regulation is being examined by over-expressing the cardiac-specific homeobox factor Nkx2-5 and the more ubiquitous serum response transcription factor (SRF), with which Nkx2-5 associates. The expression of selected gene products that upregulate during cardiac hypertrophy are then examined. Molecular markers of abnormal cardiac hypertrophy as well as changes in protein synthesis and cellular morphogenesis are examed as end-points.