Summary
Cardiac hypertrophy is an adaptive process to an increased hemodynamic overload. When cardiomyocytes cultured on silicone dishes were stretched, second messengers such as protein kinase C (PKC), Raf-1 kinase, and mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases were activated, which were followed by increased protein synthesis. Moreover, pretreatment with an angiotensin II (AngII) type 1 receptor antagonist dimished an increase in protein synthesis, MAP kinase activity, and c-fos gene expression induced by the stretching of cardiomyocytes. These suggest the linkage of the cardiac renin-angiotensin system to the formation of pressure-overload hypertrophy. Indeed, in the stretch-conditioned medium the levels of AngII concentration were increased. Also, mechanical stretch enhanced endothelin (ET)-1 release from the cardiomyocytes and activated the Na+/H+ exchanger independently of these vasoactive peptides. In the second part, we examined AngII-induced signaling pathways both in cardiac myocytes and in cardiac fibroblasts. AngII-evoked signal transduction pathways differed between cell types. In cardiac fibroblasts AngII activated MAP kinases through a pathway including the Gβγ subunit of Gi protein, Src, Shc, Grb2, and Ras, while Gq and PKC activation was necessary in cardiac myocytes. We further explored norepinephrine (NE)-induced signaling pathways in cardiac myocytes. NE activated Raf-1 kinase and MAP kinases and increased amino acid uptake in cardiomyocytes of neonatal rats. β-adrenoceptor (AR) stimulation as well and α1-AR stimulation was involved in NE-induced MAP kinase activation. It is noteworthy that unlike in other cell types not only PKC activation but also protein kinase A (PKA) activation increased the activaties of Raf-1 kinase and MAP kinases in cardiac myocytes and induced cell growth. Finally, we observed that β-AR-induced activation of MAP kinases is dependent on both Gs/cAMP/PKA and Gi/Src/Ras signaling pathways and that phosphorylation of β-AR is critical to the cross talk between these signaling pathways.
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Received: 14 June 1999, Accepted: 26 July 1999
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Yamazaki, T., Yazaki, Y. Molecular basis of cardiac hypertrophy. Z Kardiol 89, 1–6 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s003920050001
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s003920050001