Catecholamines and development of cardiac pacemaking: An intrinsically intimate relationship

    Authors

    S. N. Ebert;D. G. Taylor

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Cardiovasc. Res.

    Keywords

    epinephrine; norepinephrine; cardiac development; pacemaker; BETA-ADRENERGIC-RECEPTOR; PHENYLETHANOLAMINE N-METHYLTRANSFERASE; MOUSE; FETAL DEVELOPMENT; EMBRYONIC RAT-HEART; SINOATRIAL NODE; TARGETED; DISRUPTION; RYANODINE RECEPTOR; DIASTOLIC DEPOLARIZATION; NA+/CA2+; EXCHANGER; NA+-CA2+ EXCHANGER; Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems

    Abstract

    A generation ago, a melding of imagination and experimental evidence led to the hypothesis that catecholamines were essential in establishing basal cardiac pacemaking rhythm. Subsequent discoveries of depolarizing "pacemaker" currents and viable adult catecholamine-deficient animals raised serious doubts about the necessity of catecholamines in pacemaking. However, the findings that catecholamines are produced in pacemaking regions prior to innervation, and that they are required for embryonic survival during a defined "critical period" of embryonic development have revitalized the original hypothesis. Recent results have further suggested that intrinsic cardiac adrenergic cells can differentiate into pacemaking myocytes, and that protein kinase A, a prominent downstream mediator of p-adrenergic signaling, is required for pacemaking activity. Here, we discuss how catecholamines and the intrinsic cardiac adrenergic cells that produce them may influence ontological development of cardiac pacemaking. (c) 2006 European Society of Cardiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    Cardiovascular Research

    Volume

    72

    Issue/Number

    3

    Publication Date

    1-1-2006

    Document Type

    Review

    Language

    English

    First Page

    364

    Last Page

    374

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000242692300003

    ISSN

    0008-6363

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