Shaping the Heart in Development and Disease
Publisher: Transword Research Network
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Kerala, India
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 249
Description: Elucidation of the developmental programs that regulate heart
development is not only fundamentally important, but also relevant to
understanding the mechanisms of many forms of cardiac pathology. This
special Issue presents an update on molecular, genetic, cellular and
morphological mechanisms underlying cardiac development and their
possible roles in adult heart disease. Many contributions provide information
on the signalling systems and gene regulatory networks, which are required
for normal heart development and also relevant to cardiac pathologies.
The book consists of 13 chapters, beginning with the introduction into an
interdisciplinary approach to the study of heart disease at the interface
between cardiac developmental biology and cardiac pathophysiology and
progressing in sequence to the role of the transcription factors (Wnts, Pitx2,
Tbxs, Tgfs, Nkx2.5, Srf, among others), microRNAs and bioactive peptides in
heart development and disease, and ending with genetics of human congenital
heart disease and subcellular mechanisms underlining cardiac dysregulation
in animal models of heart failure and in humans.
Fundamental discoveries in genetics, developmental, cell and molecular
biology, often using non-mammalian model organisms, have led and will
continue to lead to important advances in the field of cardiovascular phenotype
regulation during both heart development and heart disease progression. The
ability to genetically manipulate cells and whole organisms allow us to identify
the functions of newly discovered genes in heart development and to create novel
and more specific animal models of human heart disease. The isolation and
analysis of mutants of fruit fly, nematode, zebrafish, and mouse are progressing,
and many of these mutants can be models of human cardiovascular system
disorders. Relevant data are discussed throughout the book.
The main objectives of this review collection were to summarize the most
recent advances related to heart development and disease and to identify
important areas for future research. We are hopeful that this book will
provide a valuable resource to present and future investigators and clinicians
interested in developmental roots of cardiovascular regulation. It would have
been impossible to bring together researches from diverse fields without the
idea (proclaimed by Kenneth Chien and Eric Olson in 2002) of convergence
of signalling pathways in heart development and heart disease. Essential to
ensure the success was the encouragement of those who believed in its
importance. We thank them for this, and anticipate that the readers will too.
Alexander Mikhailov and Mario Torrado
Table of contents: title: Chapter 1 I Re-shaping the heart in the age of molecular medicine: Introduction I 1; title: Chapter 2 I Introductory address. Heart developmental biology and; title: heart disease: Anatomical profiling of cardiac gene regulation I 13; title: Chapter 3 I Morphology of the developing cardiac outflow tract I 17; title: Chapter 4 I Regulation of Wg/Wnt signaling pathways in heart development I 41; title: Chapter 5 I Transcriptional networks during embryonic stem cell-derived; title: cardiomyogenesis: The role of the homeobox transcription factor Pitx2 I  81; title: Chapter 6 I T-box transcription factors: Their roles in heart development; title: and human heart disease I 95; title: Chapter 7 I Transforming growth factor-β signaling in heart development and disease I 117; title: Chapter 8 I NKX2.5 and SRF in postnatal cardiac remodeling: Is there a link? I 145; title: Chapter 9 I MicroRNA in heart development and disease I 165; title: Chapter 10 I Clues toward understanding the role of microRNAs in; title: TGF-beta and MAPK signalling during heart development I 183; title: Chapter 11 I The genetics of human congenital heart disease I 193; title: Chapter 12 I Novel role of prokineticin receptors in cardiovascular homeostasis I 217; title: Chapter 13 I Changes at the cellular level in the diseased heart and their; title: implications on function I 237