BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.
Cell Tissue Res. 2012 Jan;347(1):203-23. doi: 10.1007/s00441-011-1241-3. Epub 2011 Sep 28.
The majority of children with congenital heart disease now live into adulthood due to the remarkable surgical and medical advances that have taken place over the past half century. Because of this, adults now represent the largest age group with adult cardiovascular diseases. It includes patients with heart diseases that were not detected or not treated during childhood, those whose defects were surgically corrected but now need revision due to maladaptive responses to the procedure, those with exercise problems and those with age-related degenerative diseases. Because adult cardiovascular diseases in this population are relatively new, they are not well understood. It is therefore necessary to understand the molecular and physiological pathways involved if we are to improve treatments. Since there is a developmental basis to adult cardiovascular disease, transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) signaling pathways that are essential for proper cardiovascular development may also play critical roles in the homeostatic, repair and stress response processes involved in adult cardiovascular diseases. Consequently, we have chosen to summarize the current information on a subset of TGFβ ligand and receptor genes and related effector genes that, when dysregulated, are known to lead to cardiovascular diseases and adult cardiovascular deficiencies and/or pathologies. A better understanding of the TGFβ signaling network in cardiovascular disease and repair will impact genetic and physiologic investigations of cardiovascular diseases in elderly patients and lead to an improvement in clinical interventions.
由于过去半个世纪以来发生的显著的外科和医学进步，大多数患有先天性心脏病的儿童现在都能活到成年。因此，成年人现在是患有成人心血管疾病的最大年龄组。这包括在儿童时期未被发现或未得到治疗的心脏病患者、那些由于对手术的适应性反应而需要进行修正的缺陷已通过手术矫正的患者、那些有运动问题的患者和那些有年龄相关退行性疾病的患者。由于该人群中的成人心血管疾病相对较新，因此人们对其了解甚少。因此，如果要改善治疗方法，就有必要了解涉及的分子和生理途径。由于成人心血管疾病有其发育基础，因此对于正常心血管发育至关重要的转化生长因子 β（TGFβ）信号通路也可能在涉及成人心血管疾病的体内平衡、修复和应激反应过程中发挥关键作用。因此，我们选择总结 TGFβ配体和受体基因以及相关效应基因的一组子集的当前信息，当这些基因失调时，已知会导致心血管疾病和成人心血管缺陷和/或病理。更好地了解心血管疾病和修复中的 TGFβ信号网络将影响老年患者心血管疾病的遗传和生理研究，并导致临床干预的改善。
