Title:Calreticulin in the Heart: From Embryological Development to Cardiac Pathology.
VOLUME: 16 ISSUE: 1
Author(s):D. Martinho-Dias, A. Leite-Moreira and P. Castro-Chaves
Affiliation:Physiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, 4200 Porto, Portugal
Keywords:Calreticulin, endoplasmic reticulum, fetal lethality, hypertrophy, ischemia-reperfusion, dilated
cardiomyopathy, arrhythmia, heart block.
Abstract:Background: Calreticulin is a Ca2+-binding chaperone in the
endoplasmic reticulum (ER) which is crucial to the correct embryological
development of the heart in mice. Altered expression levels in the adult were
correlated with several cardiac pathologies such as cardiac hypertrophy and
dilated cardiomyopathy.
Aim: In this review, we aim to describe the role of calreticulin in the
embryological development of the heart in mice and to clarify the relationship
between the different cardiac pathologies and altered expression levels of calreticulin in the adult heart.
Conclusion: There is an ER crucial to embryogenesis in cardiomyocytes besides SR. Certain stimuli may
induce reactivation of the transcription pattern present during embryogenesis, leading to overexpression of
calreticulin in the heart, altering numerous signaling pathways and subsequently inducing pathology.
Normalization of these transcriptional disorders holds promise in the treatment of multiple cardiac diseases.
