Ja. Epstein et Ca. Buck, Transcriptional regulation of cardiac development: Implications for congenital heart disease and DiGeorge syndrome, PEDIAT RES, 48(6), 2000, pp. 717-724
In recent years, impressive advances have occurred in our understanding of
transcriptional regulation of cardiac development. These insights have begu
n to elucidate the mystery of congenital heart disease at the molecular lev
el. In addition, the molecular pathways emerging from the study of cardiac
development are being applied to the understanding of adult cardiac disease
. Preliminary results support the contention that a thorough understanding
of molecular programs governing cardiac morphogenesis will provide importan
t insights into the pathogenesis of human cardiac diseases. This review wil
l focus on examples of transcription factors that play critical roles at va
rious phases of cardiac development and their relevance to cardiac disease.
This is an exciting and burgeoning area of investigation. It is not possib
le to be all-inclusive, and the reader will note important efforts in the a
reas of cardiomyocyte determination, left-right asymmetry, cardiac muscular
dystrophies, electrophysiology and vascular disease are not covered. For a
more complete discussion, the reader is referred to recent reviews includi
ng the excellent compilation of observations assembled by Harvey and Rosent
hal (1).