Figure 4. Cardiovascular Disease and GDF-15:
GDF-15 is increased in cardiovascular disease, leading to activation of Akt, ERK, and SMAD2 pathways in both endothelial cells and cardiomyocytes. These pathways promote cell migration, nitric oxide production, cell proliferation and possibly cardiac hypertrophy (A). Using cardiomyocytes from either neonates or adults, addition of GDF-15 can either cause attenuation of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy or promotion of cardiac hypertrophy by SMAD binding, respectively (B).