Neuregulin1/ErbB4 Signaling and Cardiomyocyte Proliferation

How is cardiac neuregulin signaling involved after herceptin treatment of breast cancer patients? Our latest podcast explores the new Review article by Wadugu et al, which focuses on neuregulin signaling in the heart and dissects early observations that up to 30% of patients treated with herceptin for breast cancer displayed heart failure as a side-effect, likely by inhibiting neuregulin signaling. Cardiomyocyte proliferation is just one of many events triggered by neuregulin activation in heart cells, thereby opening a safe, paracrine possibility to stimulate myocyte proliferation in experimental and clinical heart failure studies. Listen as Associate Editor Leon de Windt talks with senior author Bernhard Kuhn (Children's Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School) and leading expert Douglas Sawyer (Vanderbilt University) about stem cell treatments, clinical trials, and much more.

Brian Wadugu and Bernhard Kuhn. The role of neuregulin/ErbB2/ErbB4 signaling in the heart with special focus on effects on cardiomyocyte proliferation Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published ahead of print March 16, 2012, doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00063.2012.