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Sci. STKE, 4 March 2003
Vol. 2003, Issue 172, p. tw92
[DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.1722003tw92]

EDITORS' CHOICE

Cardiology Inhibiting a Pump Within a Pump

Heart failure affects nearly 5 million people in the United States. Most inherited forms of heart failure have been linked to defects in cardiac contractile proteins. Schmitt et al. show that heart failure can be initiated by disturbances of calcium metabolism in heart muscle cells. Humans with an inherited form of congestive heart failure were found to have a mutation in phospholamban (PLN), a protein that inhibits the cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA2a). Subsequent experiments revealed that the mutant PLN causes constitutive inhibition of SERCA2a, leading to alterations in Ca2+ kinetics.

J. P. Schmitt, M. Kamisago, M. Asahi, G. H. Li, F. Ahmad, U. Mende, E. G. Kranias, D. H. MacLennan, J. G. Seidman, C. E. Seidman, Dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure caused by a mutation in phospholamban. Science 299, 1410-1413 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text]

Citation: Inhibiting a Pump Within a Pump. Sci. STKE 2003, tw92 (2003).

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Science Signaling. ISSN 1937-9145 (online), 1945-0877 (print). Pre-2008: Science's STKE. ISSN 1525-8882