心血管疾病已成为中国乃至全球首位死亡原因,探索心血管系统发育及调控异常的原因及相关机制可以为心血管疾病的预防和治疗提供重要的科学依据。Hippo信号通路是新近发现的在调节器官大小、细胞增殖及凋亡、干细胞命运等方面具有重要功能的一条信号通路。Hippo信号通路的不同成分参与心脏血管的发育和心血管细胞增殖、分化等功能调控,影响损伤后修复及再生等过程,该通路调节异常可引起心血管疾病,如心梗、心肌肥大、血管内膜增生、动脉硬化等。本文综述了Hippo信号通路对心血管系统发育和疾病调控的相关研究及最新进展,以期为Hippo通路在心血管疾病的发病机制及临床转化研究提供潜在的理论基础。

Cardiovascular diseases have become the leading cause of death in the world. Understanding the development of cardiovascular system and the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases will promote the generation of novel preventive and therapeutic strategy. The Hippo pathway is a recently identified signaling cascade that plays a critical role in organ size control, cell proliferation, apoptosis and fate determination of stem cells. Gene knockout and transgenic mouse models have revealed that the Hippo signaling pathway is involved in heart development, cardiomyocyte proliferation, apoptosis, hypertrophy and cardiac regeneration. The Hippo signaling pathway also regulates vascular development, differentiation and various functions of vascular cells. Dysregulation of the Hippo signaling pathway leads to different kinds of cardiovascular diseases, such as myocardial infarction, cardiac hypertrophy, neointima formation and atherosclerosis. In this review, we briefly summarize current research on the roles and regulation mechanisms of the Hippo signaling pathway in cardiovascular development and diseases.