Diacylglycerol (DG) kinase (DGK) terminates signaling from DG, which serves as an activator of protein kinase C (PKC), by converting DG to phosphatidic acid. DGK is thus regarded as an attenuator of the PKC activity. In rats, five DGK isozymes have been cloned, but little is known about their role in the heart. In this study, the spatiotemporal expression of DGK isozymes was investigated in rat hearts under a normal condition and after myocardial infarction (MI) by in situ hybridization

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... mistry and immunohistochemistry. In normal left ventricular myocardium, DGK␣, DGK⑀, and DGK mRNAs were expressed evenly throughout the myocardium, although the DGK␣ expression was very low. In infarcted hearts, the expression of DGK was enhanced in the peripheral zone of the necrotic area and at the border zone 3 and 7 days after MI, and to a lesser extent in the middle layer of the granulation tissue 21 days after MI. The enhanced DGK expression in the infarcted and border areas could be attributed to granulocytes and macrophages. In contrast, the expression of DGK⑀ in the infarcted and border areas was lower than that in the viable left ventricle (LV) throughout the postoperation period. Furthermore, DGK⑀ expression in the viable myocardium 21 days after MI decreased significantly compared with left ventricular myocardium in the sham-operated rats and was completely restored by treatment with captopril. Our results demonstrate that three DGK isozymes are expressed in the heart and that each isozyme might have different functional characteristics in the healing and LV remodeling after MI. (Circ Res. 2001;89:265-272.)