title: Ontogeny of cardiac sympathetic innervation and its implications for cardiac disease.
abstract: The vertebrate heart is innervated by the sympathetic and parasympathetic components of the peripheral autonomic nervous system, which regulates its contractile rate and force. Understanding the mechanisms that control sympathetic neuronal growth, differentiation, and innervation of the heart may provide insight into the etiology of cardiac arrhythmogenesis. This review provides an overview of the cell signaling pathways and transcriptional effectors that regulate both the noradrenergic gene program during sympathetic neurogenesis and regional nerve density during cardiac innervation. Recent studies exploring transcriptional regulation of the bHLH transcription factor Hand1 in developing sympathetic neurons are explored, and how the Hand1 sympathetic neuron-specific cis-regulatory element may be used further to assess the contribution of altered sympathetic innervation to human cardiac disease is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry, and Medical and Molecular Genetics, Riley Heart Research Center, Wells Center for Pediatric Research, Indiana Medical School, 1044W. Walnut Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202-5225, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Vincentz
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rubart
authors.forename: Anthony B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Firulli
mesh_terms: D051792:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006321:Heart / Q000294:innervation*; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D055495:Neurogenesis; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013564:Sympathetic Nervous System / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D051792:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Proteins; C097341:helix-loop-helix protein, eHAND