title: Exercise for the heart: signaling pathways.
abstract: Physical exercise, a potent functional intervention in protecting against cardiovascular diseases, is a hot topic in recent years. Exercise has been shown to reduce cardiac risk factors, protect against myocardial damage, and increase cardiac function. This improves quality of life and decreases mortality and morbidity in a variety of cardiovascular diseases, including myocardial infarction, cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury, diabetic cardiomyopathy, cardiac aging, and pulmonary hypertension. The cellular adaptation to exercise can be associated with both endogenous and exogenous factors: (1) exercise induces cardiac growth via hypertrophy and renewal of cardiomyocytes, and (2) exercise induces endothelial progenitor cells to proliferate, migrate and differentiate into mature endothelial cells, giving rise to endothelial regeneration and angiogenesis. The cellular adaptations associated with exercise are due to the activation of several signaling pathways, in particular, the growth factor neuregulin1 (NRG1)-ErbB4-C/EBPβ and insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1-PI3k-Akt signaling pathways. Of interest, microRNAs (miRNAs, miRs) such as miR-222 also play a major role in the beneficial effects of exercise. Thus, exploring the mechanisms mediating exercise-induced benefits will be instrumental for devising new effective therapies against cardiovascular diseases.
authors: Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China.
authors: Lichan
authors: L
authors: Tao
authors: Regeneration and Ageing Lab and Experimental Center of Life Sciences, School of Life Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.|Shanghai Key Laboratory of Bio-Energy Crops, School of Life Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
authors: Yihua
authors: Y
authors: Bei
authors: Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China.
authors: Haifeng
authors: H
authors: Zhang
authors: Regeneration and Ageing Lab and Experimental Center of Life Sciences, School of Life Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.|Shanghai Key Laboratory of Bio-Energy Crops, School of Life Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
authors: Junjie
authors: J
authors: Xiao
authors: Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China.
authors: Xinli
authors: X
authors: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000378:metabolism / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002465:Cell Movement; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D015444:Exercise; D006801:Humans; D006976:Hypertension, Pulmonary / Q000473:pathology; D006984:Hypertrophy; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000378:metabolism; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000473:pathology; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology*; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D011788:Quality of Life; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; C525710:MIR222, human
keywords: cardiac growth; cardiovascular disease; exercise