Cells sense their physical surroundings through mechanotransduction—that is, by
translating mechanical forces and deformations into biochemical signals such as changes in …

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) offer a multifaceted platform to study cardiac
developmental biology, understand disease mechanisms, and develop novel therapies …

To maintain mechanical homeostasis, cells must recognize and respond to changes in
cytoskeletal integrity. By imaging live cells expressing fluorescently tagged cytoskeletal …

Two myosin light chain (MLC) kinase (MLCK) proteins, smooth muscle (encoded by mylk1
gene) and skeletal (encoded by mylk2 gene) MLCK, have been shown to be expressed in …

Circadian rhythms play a crucial role in our cardiovascular system. Importantly, there has
been a recent flurry of clinical and experimental studies revealing the profound adverse …

The essential light chain of myosin (ELC) is known to be important for structural stability of
the α-helical lever arm domain of the myosin head, but its function in striated muscle …

The activity of cardiac and skeletal muscles depends upon the ATP-coupled actin–myosin
interactions to execute the power stroke and muscle contraction. The goal of this review …

Our understanding of the molecular processes which regulate cardiac function has grown
immeasurably in recent years. Even with the advent of β-blockers, angiotensin inhibitors and …

Cardiac hypertrophy is closely linked to impaired fatty acid oxidation, but the molecular basis
of this link is unclear. Here, we investigated the loss of an obligate enzyme in mitochondrial …

Background—Tropomyosin (TM), an essential actin-binding protein, is central to the control
of calcium-regulated striated muscle contraction. Although TPM1α (also called α-TM) is the …