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β-Adrenergic Signaling in Chronic Heart Failure—Friend or Foe?

  • Chapter
Signal Transduction and Cardiac Hypertrophy

Part of the book series: Progress in Experimental Cardiology ((PREC,volume 7))

  • 126 Accesses

Summary

In chronic heart failure, a number of compensatory mechanisms are activated in order to maintain circulation and thus supply of the body with blood and oxygen. One important mechanism is the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, resulting in increased β-adrenergic signaling. This leads to both adaptive and pathological processes within the cell, including a desensitization of the β-adrenergic signal transduction cascade, the induction of hypertrophy, apoptosis and necrosis. It is currently a matter of debate whether a desensitization of the β-adrenergic signal transduction cascade is adaptive or maladaptive. In other words, it is not entirely clear whether in heart failure, decreased β-adrenergic signaling due to desensitization of the signaling cascade per se is a cause for cardiac dysfunction. In order to elucidate this issue, this review will focus on the consequences of increased β-adrenergic signaling, investigated by selective overexpression of distinct cascade components in mouse models. Furthermore, the impact of partial and inverse agonism of β-blockers on β-adrenergic signaling in human myocardium in vitro as well as in vivo in the clinical situation in patients with heart failure is highlighted. It is discussed whether the fact that not all β-blockers improve survival in heart failure patients may be due to their respective degree of inverse agonism.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Innere Medizin III, Medizinische Universitätsklinik u. Poliklinik, 66421, Homburg/Saar, Germany

    Christoph Maack & Michael Böhm

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  1. Christoph Maack
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  2. Michael Böhm
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Correspondence to Christoph Maack .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, St. Boniface General Hospital Research Centre Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

    Naranjan S. Dhalla PhD, MD (Hon), DSc (Hon) (Distinguished Professor and Director), Larry V. Hryshko PhD (Associate Professor), Elissavet Kardami PhD (Professor) & Pawan K. Singal PhD, DSc (Professor) (Distinguished Professor and Director),  (Associate Professor),  (Professor) &  (Professor)

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Maack, C., Böhm, M. (2003). β-Adrenergic Signaling in Chronic Heart Failure—Friend or Foe?. In: Dhalla, N.S., Hryshko, L.V., Kardami, E., Singal, P.K. (eds) Signal Transduction and Cardiac Hypertrophy. Progress in Experimental Cardiology, vol 7. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0347-7_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0347-7_22

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5032-3

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