TY - JOUR
T1 - Aquaporin Channels in the Heart-Physiology and Pathophysiology
AU - Verkerk, Arie O.
AU - Lodder, Elisabeth M.
AU - Wilders, Ronald
PY - 2019/4/25
Y1 - 2019/4/25
N2 - Mammalian aquaporins (AQPs) are transmembrane channels expressed in a large variety of cells and tissues throughout the body. They are known as water channels, but they also facilitate the transport of small solutes, gasses, and monovalent cations. To date, 13 different AQPs, encoded by the genes AQP0-AQP12, have been identified in mammals, which regulate various important biological functions in kidney, brain, lung, digestive system, eye, and skin. Consequently, dysfunction of AQPs is involved in a wide variety of disorders. AQPs are also present in the heart, even with a specific distribution pattern in cardiomyocytes, but whether their presence is essential for proper (electro)physiological cardiac function has not intensively been studied. This review summarizes recent findings and highlights the involvement of AQPs in normal and pathological cardiac function. We conclude that AQPs are at least implicated in proper cardiac water homeostasis and energy balance as well as heart failure and arsenic cardiotoxicity. However, this review also demonstrates that many effects of cardiac AQPs, especially on excitation-contraction coupling processes, are virtually unexplored.
AB - Mammalian aquaporins (AQPs) are transmembrane channels expressed in a large variety of cells and tissues throughout the body. They are known as water channels, but they also facilitate the transport of small solutes, gasses, and monovalent cations. To date, 13 different AQPs, encoded by the genes AQP0-AQP12, have been identified in mammals, which regulate various important biological functions in kidney, brain, lung, digestive system, eye, and skin. Consequently, dysfunction of AQPs is involved in a wide variety of disorders. AQPs are also present in the heart, even with a specific distribution pattern in cardiomyocytes, but whether their presence is essential for proper (electro)physiological cardiac function has not intensively been studied. This review summarizes recent findings and highlights the involvement of AQPs in normal and pathological cardiac function. We conclude that AQPs are at least implicated in proper cardiac water homeostasis and energy balance as well as heart failure and arsenic cardiotoxicity. However, this review also demonstrates that many effects of cardiac AQPs, especially on excitation-contraction coupling processes, are virtually unexplored.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85065288516&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31027200
U2 - https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20082039
DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20082039
M3 - Review article
C2 - 31027200
SN - 1661-6596
VL - 20
SP - 20139
JO - International journal of molecular sciences
JF - International journal of molecular sciences
IS - 8
ER -