AUTHOR=Yan Daliang , Hua Lu 

TITLE=Nucleolar stress: Friend or foe in cardiac function?

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cardiovascular-medicine/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2022.1045455

DOI=10.3389/fcvm.2022.1045455

ISSN=2297-055X

ABSTRACT=Studies in the past decades have uncovered an emerging role of the nucleolus in stress responses and human disease progression. The disruption of ribosome biogenesis in the nucleolus causes aberrant nucleolar architecture and function, termed nucleolar stress, to initiate stress-responsive pathways via the release of various nucleolar proteins. While data obtained both from clinical and basic investigations have faithfully demonstrated a critical involvement of nucleolar stress in the pathogenesis of cardiomyopathy, much remains unclear regarding its precise involvement in the progression of cardiac diseases. The initiation of nucleolar stress following acute myocardial damage leads to the upregulation of various cardioprotective nucleolar proteins, in-cluding nucleostemin (NS), nucleophosmin (NPM) and nucleolin (NCL). As a result, nucleolar stress plays an important role in facilitating the survival and repair of cardiac cells. On the other hand, abnormalities in nucleolar architecture and function are correlated with the deterioration of cardiac diseases. Notably, the cardiomyocytes of advanced ischemic and dilated cardiomyopathy display reduced silver-stained nucleolar organiser regions (AgNOR) and enlarged nucleoli, mimicking the characteristics of tissue aging. Collectively, nucleolar abnormalities are critically involved in the development of cardiac diseases.