title: NGF and heart: Is there a role in heart disease?
abstract: The review emphasizes the role of NGF, the most representative member of the neurotrophins family, in cardiac physiopathology with a particular focus on healing and sprouting processes occurring after tissue damage. Cardiac and circulating NGF levels dramatically increase following myocardial injury (MI). A very early rise of this neurotrophin is indeed observed soon after MI (hours). Such a rise may lead to sympathetic nerve sprouting which may underlie the later genesis of arrhythmias but may also favor the healing process. At later times (months after), when heart failure develops, the opposite is detected and NGF tissue levels are below the normal range, an event that may in turn participate to defective innervation and cardiac failure. Through a careful analysis of preclinical and clinical studies, this review proposes that time is the key variable when studying these opposite changes in NGF expression observed following MI and attempting to interpret and correlate them with cardiac physiopathology. The examination of the results leads to the speculation that NGF modulation may be a pharmacological target for interventions in specific stages of heart dysfunction following MI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Applied Pharmacology and Centre of Excellence in Applied Biology, University of Pavia, Italy. govonis@unipv.it
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Govoni
authors.forename: Alessia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pascale
authors.forename: Marialaura
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amadio
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Calvillo
authors.forename: Emilia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: D'Elia
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cereda
authors.forename: Piercarlo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fantucci
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ceroni
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vanoli
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006321:Heart / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D020932:Nerve Growth Factor / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D020932:Nerve Growth Factor