How cardiomyocytes sense pathophysiological stresses for cardiac remodeling.

In the past decades, the cardiovascular community has laid out the fundamental signaling cascades that become awry in the cardiomyocyte during the process of pathologic cardiac remodeling. These pathways are initiated at the cell membrane and work their way to the nucleus to mediate gene expression. Complexity is multiplied as the cardiomyocyte is subjected to cross talk with other cells as well as a barrage of extracellular stimuli and mechanical stresses.

RIF-1, a novel nuclear receptor corepressor that associates with the nuclear matrix.

The retinoic acid receptors (RARs) are ligand-dependent transcription factors that play critical roles in cell differentiation, embryonic development, and tumor suppression. RAR transcriptional activities are mediated by a growing family of nuclear receptor (NR) coregulators. Here we report the cloning and characterization of a novel protein RIF1 (receptor interacting factor) that interacts with RARalpha in vivo and in vitro.