New Insights into Cardiac Mechanobiology: Role of Caveolar Nanodomains in Mechano-electrochemical Signal Transduction

About this Seminar

The heart is continuously exposed to a changing mechanical environment, both on a beat-to-beat basis (e.g., fluctuating blood pressure, exercise, emotional stress) and chronically (e.g., elevated venous return, high blood pressure). While acute changes in mechanical load stimulate cardiac performance via autoregulatory chronotropic and inotropic responses, chronic overload first induces a phase of compensatory cardiac hypertrophy. Signaling pathways initiated by elevated myocardial tension are linked to multiple stretch-sensitive mechanisms, yet the signaling events that occur at the membrane to sense and transmit mechanical signals at physiological and pathological conditions are poorly understood. This lecture highlights caveolae sarcolemmal invaginations as key stretch-sensitive cardiomyocyte structures and links caveolar mechano-electrochemical signal transduction to the regulation of heart rate and contraction during physiological stress and arrhythmogenesis and structural remodeling during chronic cardiac overload.

Additional Details

This is a free event hosted by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and co-sponsored by the institute's Center for Vascular and Heart Research. The Pioneers in Biomedical Research Seminar Series, which runs annually from September to May, has featured leading biomedical researchers from throughout the country since the program began in 2012. The lectures are also open to all members of the Virginia Tech community including graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, and staff, as well as the public.

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