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Review
. 2015 Apr 27;11(6):672-8.
doi: 10.7150/ijbs.11883. eCollection 2015.

Functions of autophagy in pathological cardiac hypertrophy

Zhenhua Li  1 , Jian Wang  1 , Xiao Yang  1
Affiliations
Review

Functions of autophagy in pathological cardiac hypertrophy

Zhenhua Li et al. Int J Biol Sci. .

Abstract

Pathological cardiac hypertrophy is the response of heart to various biomechanical and physiopathological stimuli, such as aging, myocardial ischemia and hypertension. However, a long-term exposure to the stress makes heart progress to heart failure. Autophagy is a dynamic self-degradative process necessary for the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Accumulating evidence has revealed a tight link between cardiomyocyte autophagy and cardiac hypertrophy. Sophisticatedly regulated autophagy protects heart from various physiological and pathological stimuli by degradating and recycling of protein aggregates, lipid drops, or organelles. Here we review the recent progresses concerning the functions of autophagy in cardiac hypertrophy induced by various hypertrophic stimuli. Moreover, the therapeutic strategies targeting autophagy for cardiac hypertrophy will also be discussed.

Keywords: autophagy; cardiac hypertrophy; heart failure; therapeutic target.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Dual roles of autophagy in cardiac hypertrophy. Baseline autophagy maintains cardiac structure and function by energy supply, ROS clearance and protein quality control, while excess autophagy is detrimental to the heart by enhancing cell death.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The effects of autophagic alteration on hearts under different hypertrophic stimuli. The autophagic activity is decreased in aging hearts but is increased in ischemic hearts. Inhibition of autophagy in mice is detrimental to, while induction of autophagy is beneficial for hearts suffering aging or ischemia. In the mouse model of hypertensive cardiac hypertrophy, autophagy is inhibited in the early stage but is induced in the late stage. Induction of autophagy is demonstrated to be detrimental to hypertensive cardiac hypertrophy, while contradict results concerning the effects of inhibited autophagy on hypertensive cardiac hypertrophy are reported. (↑: induction; ↓: inhibition; KO: knockout mice; TG: transgenic mice; KD: gene knockdown; DN: dominant negative transgenic mice)
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