The Hydrogen Sulfide Research, The Role Of Cardiac Hypertrophy

Cardiac hypertrophy is an accommodation response to almost all of factors resulted in heart diseases, but long-term cardiac hypertrophy will lead to heart ischemia, heart failure, and sudden death, which is one of the most important cause for cardiovascular diseases death. In the clinic, the changes of matrix including cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) proliferation and fibrosis often existed in cardiac hypertrophy of various reasons. The increment of CFs paracrine and autorine induced by sympathetic nerve exciting resulted in CFs proliferation and collagen secretion during the process of cardiac hypertrophy. The number and the ability of collagen secretion of CFs affected the structure and stiffness of the heart.Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a well-known toxic gas, and its toxicology has been extensively studied. In the 1990s, H₂S was first reported as a neuromodulator in the brain because of its essential role in the induction of hippocampal long-term potentiation at physiological concentrations. H₂S was also demonstrated as a vasorelaxant and could reduce pulmonary hypertension and spontaneous hypertension in rats. In addition to the regulatory roles in never system and cardiovascular system, H₂S was also found that it was involved in digestive system, urinary system, and blood system. In recent years, more and more studies have suggested endogenous H₂S to be another gasotransmitter in physiological concentration and has recently been hypothesized that H₂S is the "third endogenous signaling gasotransmitter", alongside nitric oxide (NO) and carbon monoxide (CO). Up to now, the majority experiments about H₂S in cardiovascular system were focused on vessels, and only some limited reports with regard to the heart. A recent study has demonstrated that H₂S decreased rat heart contractility mediated by Katp channels pathway. Endogenous H₂S contributes to cardioprotection by ischemia in the rat ventricular myocytes, which involve PKC and sarcolemmal Katp channels, and/or provoking NO release. H₂S is produced endogenously in mammalian tissues from the amino acids cysteine and homocysteine by pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes such as...