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Updated: Jul 5, 2026

In Vitro Assessment of Cardiac Function Using Skinned Cardiomyocytes
Published on: June 22, 2020
Protein quality control and degradation in cardiomyocytes
Xuejun Wang1, Huabo Su, Mark J Ranek
1Division of Basic Biomedical Sciences, Sanford School of Medicine of the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD 57069, USA. Xuejun.Wang@usd.edu
Abstract:
The heart is constantly under stress and cardiomyocytes face enormous challenges to correctly fold nascent polypeptides and keep mature proteins from denaturing. To meet the challenge, cardiomyocytes have developed multi-layered protein quality control (PQC) mechanisms which are carried out primarily by chaperones and ubiquitin-proteasome system mediated proteolysis. Autophagy may also participate in PQC in cardiomyocytes, especially under pathological conditions. Cardiac PQC often becomes inadequate in heart disease, which may play an important role in the development of congestive heart failure.
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