title: Emerging roles of A-kinase anchoring proteins in cardiovascular pathophysiology.
abstract: Heart and blood vessels ensure adequate perfusion of peripheral organs with blood and nutrients. Alteration of the homeostatic functions of the cardiovascular system can cause hypertension, atherosclerosis, and coronary artery disease leading to heart injury and failure. A-kinase anchoring proteins (AKAPs) constitute a family of scaffolding proteins that are crucially involved in modulating the function of the cardiovascular system both under physiological and pathological conditions. AKAPs assemble multifunctional signaling complexes that ensure correct targeting of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) as well as other signaling enzymes to precise subcellular compartments. This allows local regulation of specific effector proteins that control the function of vascular and cardiac cells. This review will focus on recent advances illustrating the role of AKAPs in cardiovascular pathophysiology. The accent will be mainly placed on the molecular events linked to the control of vascular integrity and blood pressure as well as on the cardiac remodeling process associated with heart failure. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Cardiomyocyte Biology: Integration of Developmental and Environmental Cues in the Heart edited by Marcus Schaub and Hughes Abriel.
authors.affiliation: Département de Pharmacologie et de Toxicologie, Faculté de Biologie et de Médecine, Lausanne 1005, Switzerland. Electronic address: Dario.diviani@unil.ch.
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Diviani
authors.affiliation: Département de Pharmacologie et de Toxicologie, Faculté de Biologie et de Médecine, Lausanne 1005, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Reggi
authors.affiliation: Département de Pharmacologie et de Toxicologie, Faculté de Biologie et de Médecine, Lausanne 1005, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Miroslav
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arambasic
authors.affiliation: Département de Pharmacologie et de Toxicologie, Faculté de Biologie et de Médecine, Lausanne 1005, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Caso
authors.affiliation: Département de Pharmacologie et de Toxicologie, Faculté de Biologie et de Médecine, Lausanne 1005, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Darko
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maric
mesh_terms: D054758:A Kinase Anchor Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure; D017868:Cyclic AMP-Dependent Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology; D032389:Myocytes, Smooth Muscle / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology; D015398:Signal Transduction; D066253:Vascular Remodeling; D020257:Ventricular Remodeling
chemical_list: D054758:A Kinase Anchor Proteins; D017868:Cyclic AMP-Dependent Protein Kinases
keywords: A kinase anchoring protein (AKAP); Cardiac remodeling; Cardiomyocyte; Protein kinase A (PKA); Signaling; Vascular smooth muscle cells