Current Signal Transduction Therapy - Volume 7, Issue 2, 2012

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Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are involved in cardiovascular diseases and, in particular, in myocardial ischemia and reperfusion. Although the restoration of blood flow is essential for salvation of ischemic heart, reperfusion elicits itself additional tissue damages. This condition has been defined as myocardial-reperfusion injury. ROS have been firstly studied for their deleterious role during reperfusion, including protein oxi Read More

High density lipoproteins have a well-established, negative correlation with risk of cardiovascular disease. There is currently particular interest in trying to exploit this relationship by raising serum high density lipoprotein cholesterol to lower risk. More recent studies suggest that high density lipoproteins have a more widespread impact on cardiovascular pathophysiology, beyond its involvement in cholesterol metabolism. The Read More

Acute atherosclerotic complications, such as myocardial infarction, are often provoked by the rupture of an atherosclerotic plaque and the subsequent thrombotic occlusion of the arterial lumen, which interrupts the blood flow and renders ischemic the downstream peripheral tissue. Several inflammatory mediators (including cytokines, chemokines and matrix metalloproteases) have been shown to orchestrate comm Read More

Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays many roles in human physiology and its abnormal activation is certainly involved in various cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and atherosclerosis: this is repeatedly confirmed by trials with RAS blockers in different clinical situations. In the last decade the classical circulating RAS has been flanked by new pathways with recently discovered players demonstrating not only an endo Read More

Adrenergic receptor signaling and heart failure are inextricably linked. Beta-adrenergic receptors (β-ARs) serve not only as physiological modulators of heart rate and contractility, they are also primary therapeutic targets of individuals with heart failure as well as many other cardiovascular disorders. In light of these relationships, this short review will focus on the basic pharmacology distinguishing adrenergic Read More

The last two decades have witnessed a growing number of experimental observations regarding the mineralocorticoid physiopathology, leading to a new understanding of the molecular basis of the aldosterone-induced target organ damage. As a matter of fact, although it has long been known that the combined administration of mineralocorticoids and salt leads to extensive vascular lesions in the target organs, the recognition Read More

The role of C-reactive protein (CRP) as a mediator of atherogenesis/atherothrombosis, and, thus, as a potential therapeutic target to fight cardiovascular disease (CVD) is still elusive. In this review, we focus on CRP as a potential mediator of CVD analysing CRP signalling data derived from relevant in vitro and animal models related to inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, primary, and secondary haemostasis, all repr Read More

Repulsive guidance molecules (RGMs) are a group of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-linked cellmembrane- associated proteins recently described. RGM family members play a diverse role in axonal guidance during embryo development, neuronal cell adhesion and regulation of systemic iron metabolism. Another important role of the RGM family, discovered recently, is that they act as co-receptors of bone morp Read More

Hematopoietic progenitor and stem cells (HPSCs) have been employed in cell-based therapy (CBT) to promote neovascularisation and regeneration of ischemic organs, such as heart and limbs. Furthermore, endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) may favour tumour growth and adverse vascular targeting treatment by incorporating into neovessels. CBT is hampered by the paucity of HPSCs harvested from peripheral blood and suf Read More

Insulin resistance (IR) is defined as a decreased response of peripheral tissues to insulin. It is a common cause of cardiovascular and hepatic diseases, and often precedes the onset of hyperglycemia and predicts the development of type 2 diabetes. Free fatty acids (FFA), inflammation and oxidative stress play key roles in the development and/or progression of IR induced by obesity. Peroxisome proliferator-activated recepto Read More