Identification of histone modification and associated histone deacetylase sensitivity in conserved cis-regulatory domains of the Abra gene

• Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is an adaptive pathological response to increased workload, stress or injury •Sustained LVH is associated with decompensation and is a major cause of cardiac disease leading to heart failure •We have identified a gene (Abra) that is acutely induced in the initial stage of pressure overloadinduced LVH, before any cardiac structural changes1 •Recent studies suggests that Abra may play a broad role in biological processes such as myogenic proliferation and differentiation, arteriogenesis and the inhibition of apoptosis •However, the molecular mechanism whereby Abra senses and responds to cardiac stress is still unclear