Chapter category: Heart

Mechanotransduction of the Endocrine Heart Paracrine and Intracellular Regulation of B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Synthesis

This chapter appears in the following book:

Cardiac Mechanotransduction

Edited by: Matti Weckstrom and Pasi Tavi
ISBN: 978-0-387-48867-7
» Get more information about this book at landesbioscience.com «

Chapter authors:
Sampsa Pikkarainen, Heikki Tokola and Heikki Ruskoaho

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Cardiac overload initiates a process, which aims to maintain and adapt cardiovascular system to altered hemodynamics. In adults, myocardial mass increases mainly due to enlargement of individual myocytes (for reviews, see refs. 1,2). Cardiac pressure overload in conditions such as aortic stenosis or hypertension, results in parallel addition of sarcomeres and increases width of myocytes, which in turn, augment left ventricular wall thickness.2 However, when mechanical and neurohumoral stress are sustained, the adaptive mechanisms eventually fail and further myocardial remodelling leads to ventricular dilation and impairment of cardiac contractile function. Cardiac output reduces until being inadequate to maintain efficient blood circulation of the whole organism and the syndrome of congestive heart failure occurs.2,3 At the cellular level, the cardiac growth and failure is due to a complex pattern of signaling mechanisms and molecules. In 1980s, identification of genes associated with cardiac hypertrophy were accompanied by the discovery of natriuretic peptides in the heart.4,5 Since then, this has been followed by characterization of regulatory mechanisms in natriuretic peptide secretion and synthesis and further insight of the signaling mechanisms and of the development of cardiac hypertrophy has been achieved.

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Additional chapters from this book:

Mechanotransduction of the Endocrine Heart Paracrine and Intracellular Regulation of B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Synthesis

Sampsa Pikkarainen, Heikki Tokola and Heikki Ruskoaho

Cardiac overload initiates a process, which aims to maintain and adapt cardiovascular system to altered hemodynamics. In adults, myocardial mass increases mainly due to enlargement of individual...

Intracellular Signaling Through Protein Kinases in Cardiac Mechanotransduction

Peter H. Sugden

There is good evidence that stress-induced deformation of the cardiac myocyte can activate intracellular signaling pathways, though how this is brought about is still partly a mystery, some clues bein...

Mechanoelectric Transduction/Feedback: Physiology and Pathophysiology

Max J. Lab

Cardiac “mechanotransduction” involves various physiological and biophysical phenomena in which mechanical energy is transduced to changes in function of cardiac myocytes and of the whole heart. In th...

The Role of Adrenoceptors in Mechanotransduction

Klaus-Dieter Schlüter,* Hans Michael Piper and Sibylle Wenzel

Adrenoceptors are a large family of seven membrane spanning G-protein coupled receptors involved in many regulatory processes of the heart. Under conditions of mechanical load to heart, i.e., pressure...

Second Messenger Systems Involved in Heart Mechanotransduction

Hiroshi Hasegawa, Hiroyuki Takano, Yunzeng Zou, Hiroshi Akazawa and Issei Komuro

Mechanical stress can be considered one of the major stimuli that evoke hypertrophic responses including reprogramming of gene expression in cardiac myocytes. Therefore, it is important to understand ...

Cardiac Remodeling and Heart Failure

Jeffrey H. Omens*, Andrew D. McCulloch and Ilka Lorenzen-Schmidt

Mechanotransduction is the process by which the cells of the heart convert mechanical signals to chemical signals responsible for cellular adaptation and remodeling. When this system cannot meet the...

The Role of the Sarcomere and Cytoskeleton in Cardiac Mechanotransduction

Sarah C. Calaghan and Ed White

The basic contractile unit of the cardiac myocyte is the sarcomere. Force develops as a result of the interaction of myosin heads with the actin thin filament. Actin filaments are directly connected...

Origin of Mechanotransduction: Stretch-Activated Ion Channels

Clive M. Baumgarten

Stretch-activated ion channels (SAC) serve as cardiac mechanotransducers. Mechanical stretch of intact tissue, isolated myocytes, or membrane patches rapidly elicits the open ing of poorly selective...

The Mechanosensory Heart: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Matti Weckström and Pasi Tavi

The cardiac muscle has an intrinsic ability to sense its filling state and react to its changes, independently of cardiac innervation that may partially serve the same functions. This ability, i...

Chapter category: Heart

Mechanotransduction of the Endocrine Heart Paracrine and Intracellular Regulation of B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Synthesis

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