Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 23, 2025

Gap Junctional Intercellular Communication: A Functional Biomarker to Assess Adverse Effects of Toxicants and Toxins, and Health Benefits of Natural Products
05:27

Gap Junctional Intercellular Communication: A Functional Biomarker to Assess Adverse Effects of Toxicants and Toxins, and Health Benefits of Natural Products

Published on: December 25, 2016

15.0K

Inter- and Intracellular Signaling Pathways

Gergana Dobreva1,2, Joerg Heineke3,4

  • 1ECAS (European Center for Angioscience), Department of Cardiovascular Genomics and Epigenomics, Mannheim Faculty of Medicine, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany. gergana.dobreva@medma.uni-heidelberg.de.

Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology
|June 17, 2024
PubMed

Insights

Congenital heart disease (CHD) arises from disrupted intercellular communication during heart development. Understanding these molecular signaling pathways is crucial for addressing lifelong complications like heart failure in adult CHD patients.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiovascular biology
  • Developmental biology
  • Molecular genetics

Background:

  • Cardiovascular diseases are the leading global cause of death.
  • Advances in surgery allow most congenital heart disease (CHD) patients to survive into adulthood.
  • Adult CHD survivors often experience long-term complications, including early-onset heart failure, due to hemodynamic overload.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the inter- and intracellular signaling mechanisms involved in heart development and function.
  • To understand the molecular basis of heart defects and lifelong complications in CHD.
  • To explore cellular communication pathways in both embryonic and adult hearts.

Main Methods:

  • Review of scientific literature on cardiac signaling.
  • Focus on findings from genetically modified mouse models.
  • Analysis of intercellular communication networks (epicardium, endocardium, myocardium, cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, fibroblasts).

Main Results:

  • Congenital heart disease results from disrupted morphogenetic patterning during early pregnancy.
  • Intercellular communication is critical for normal cardiac development.
  • Similar cell crosstalk occurs in the postnatal heart under pathological hemodynamic overload.
  • Intracellular signaling circuits coordinate cardiac development and function.

Conclusions:

  • Understanding molecular signaling in the heart is vital for addressing CHD.
  • Cellular communication pathways are key targets for future research in congenital and acquired heart conditions.
  • Insights from mouse models provide a foundation for understanding human cardiac development and disease.

More Related Videos

Applying an Inducible Expression System to Study Interference of Bacterial Virulence Factors with Intracellular Signaling08:51

Applying an Inducible Expression System to Study Interference of Bacterial Virulence Factors with Intracellular Signaling

Published on: June 25, 2015

9.2K
Mechanical Stimulation-induced Calcium Wave Propagation in Cell Monolayers: The Example of Bovine Corneal Endothelial Cells10:46

Mechanical Stimulation-induced Calcium Wave Propagation in Cell Monolayers: The Example of Bovine Corneal Endothelial Cells

Published on: July 16, 2013

16.3K

Related Concept Videos

Interactions Between Signaling Pathways01:19

Interactions Between Signaling Pathways

Signaling cascades usually lack linearity. Multiple pathways interact and regulate one another, allowing cells to integrate and respond to diverse environmental stimuli.
Convergence and divergence, and cross-talk between signaling pathways
Two distinct signaling pathways can converge on a single functional unit, which may either be a single protein or a complex of proteins. The response is either functionally distinct or synergistic between the two pathways but different from the response...
6.3K
Diversity in Cell Signaling Responses01:22

Diversity in Cell Signaling Responses

The physiological function of a cell and cellular communication are outcomes of a range of extrinsic signals, intracellular signaling pathways, and cellular responses. No two cell types express the same repertoire of signaling components. Receptors are highly selective for their cognate ligands, but once activated, they can alter multiple cellular processes such as DNA transcription, protein synthesis, and metabolic activity. 
Graded and Abrupt Responses
Some signaling systems generate...
6.4K
Overview of Cell Signaling01:23

Overview of Cell Signaling

Despite the protective membrane that separates a cell from the environment, cells need the ability to detect and respond to environmental changes. Additionally, cells often need to communicate with one another. Unicellular and multicellular organisms use a variety of cell signaling mechanisms to communicate with the environment.
Cells respond to many types of information, often through receptor proteins positioned on the membrane. For example, skin cells respond to and transmit touch...
20.3K
What is Cell Signaling?02:03

What is Cell Signaling?

Despite the protective membrane that separates a cell from the environment, cells need the ability to detect and respond to environmental changes. Additionally, cells often need to communicate with one another. Unicellular and multicellular organisms use a variety of cell signaling mechanisms to communicate to respond to the environment.
117.1K
Amplifying Signals via Second Messengers01:15

Amplifying Signals via Second Messengers

Many receptor binding ligands are hydrophilic; they do not cross the cell membrane but bind to cell-surface receptors. Thus, their message must be relayed by second messengers present in the cell cytoplasm. There are several second messenger pathways, each with its own way of relaying information. For example, the G protein-coupled receptors can activate both phosphoinositol and cyclic AMP (cAMP) second messenger pathways. The phosphoinositol pathway is active when the receptor induces...
6.9K
Intracellular Signaling Affects Focal Adhesions01:17

Intracellular Signaling Affects Focal Adhesions

Integrins act both as extracellular input receivers and as intracellular processing activators. As their name suggests, integrins are entirely integrated into the membrane structure. Their hydrophobic membrane-spanning regions interact with the phospholipid bilayer's hydrophobic region. These membrane receptors provide extracellular attachment sites for effectors like hormones and growth factors. They activate intracellular response cascades when their effectors are bound and active.
Some...
2.7K