title: Stress-induced growth-differentiation factor 15 plays an intriguing role in cardiovascular diseases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To provide an overview of the current knowledge of growth-differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15) in heart disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  To identify relevant publications, we searched PubMED database combining the textual terms of heart, cardiac, cardiovascular disease with GDF-15.
  
  
  METHODS
  Well-controlled, relatively large-scale, retrospective studies as well as meaningful individual cases were all selected as materials.
  
  
  RESULTS
  GDF-15 is a distant member of the transforming growth factor-β cytokine superfamily. In myocardium, GDF-15 is weakly expressed under physiological conditions. However, its expression level is increased in response to pathological stress. Growing evidence indicate that elevated levels of GDF-15 is a promising prognostic biomarker in cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, GDF-15 exhibits the properties of endogenous anti-hypertrophy of cardiomyocytes and protecting the heart suffering from ischemia and reperfusion insult.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ve GDF-15 may be a promising biomarker for evaluation and management of patient with cardiovascular diseases, and have potential protective properties on myocardium.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710032, China.
authors.forename: Hai-Tao
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hai-Chang
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.forename: Cheng-Xiang
authors.initials: CX
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yu-Yang
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Bo-Wu
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000378:metabolism*; D055436:Growth Differentiation Factor 15 / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D055436:Growth Differentiation Factor 15