A Kinase Interacting Protein 1 (AKIP1) promotes cardiomyocyte elongation and physiological cardiac remodelling

Kirsten Nijholt and Daan Westenbrink studied the role of AKIP1 in physiological stress and the study was recently published online in Scientific Reports. Other contributors to study were P. Sánchez-Aguilera, H. Booij, S. Oberdorf-Maass, M. Dokter, A. Wolters, B. Giepmans, W van Gilst, J. Brown, R. de Boer and H. Silljé.

While the cell signalling pathways related to pathological cardiac hypertrophy are rather well-described, little is known about the pathways involved in physiological cardiac hypertrophy. The authors therefore investigated the influence of the signalling adaptor AKIP1 on the response to voluntary exercise in a murine model.

Results show that AKIP1 promotes cardiomyocyte elongation and physiological cardiac remodelling through activation of two distinct signalling pathways: namely the Akt-C/EBP-CITED4 and the RSK3-PP2Ac-SRF pathways. Therefore, AKIP1 may serve as a potential therapeutic target to stimulate physiological cardiac growth in a pathological setting, such as heart failure.