The role of the transcription factor nuclear factor kappa B in the regulation of cardiac hypertrophy

Cardiac hypertrophy is a maladaptive response to an injury, characterized by an increase in cell size, expression of fetal genes, fibrosis and apoptosis. Several signalling transduction pathways have been identified so far that are involved in this response and all of them converge on transcription factors that are the main regulator of the expression of hypertrophic genes. Among these, nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) is a key transcription factor regulating the expression of several genes involved in human inflammation and disease. Several reports have demonstrated the involvement of NF-κB in the regulation of cardiac hypertrophy, and different inhibitors of NF-κB activity have been described so far that are able to block NF-κB at different levels of its signalling transduction pathway. NF-κB inhibition is an effective strategy to reduce multiple aspects of cardiac hypertrophy such as cardiomyocyte size, fibrosis, inflammatory cytokines expression and apoptosis. This article focuses on recently described mechanisms of inhibition of NF-κB activity and their application to animal models of cardiac hypertrophy. All these reports add to the knowledge of NF-κB signalling and could be helpful for future studies that will be focused on the research of specific and non-toxic inhibitors of NF-κB activity to regulate cardiac hypertrophy and its evolution towards heart failure. © 2010 Adis Data Information BV. All rights reserved.