CAP2 in cardiac conduction, sudden cardiac death and eye development

Sudden cardiac death kills 180,000 to 450,000 Americans annually, predominantly males. A locus that confers a risk for sudden cardiac death, cardiac conduction disease, and a newly described developmental disorder (6p22 syndrome) is located at 6p22. One gene at 6p22 is CAP2, which encodes a cytoskeletal protein that regulates actin dynamics. To determine the role of CAP2 in vivo, we generated knockout (KO) mice. cap2(-)/cap2(-) males were underrepresented at weaning and similar to 70% died by 12 weeks of age, but cap2(-)/cap2(-) females survived at close to the expected levels and lived normal life spans. CAP2 knockouts resembled patients with 6p22 syndrome in that mice were smaller and they developed microphthalmia and cardiac disease. The cardiac disease included cardiac conduction disease (CCD) and, after six months of age, dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), most noticeably in the males. To address the mechanisms underlying these phenotypes, we used Cre-mediated recombination to knock out CAP2 in cardiomyocytes. We found that the mice developed CCD, leading to sudden cardiac death from complete heart block, but no longer developed DCM or the other phenotypes, including sex bias. These studies establish a direct role for CAP2 and actin dynamics in sudden cardiac death and cardiac conduction disease.