Living cells are constantly exposed to mechanical stimuli arising from the surrounding
extracellular matrix (ECM) or from neighboring cells. The intracellular molecular processes …

Intercellular communication was long thought to be regulated exclusively through direct
contact between cells or via release of soluble molecules that transmit the signal by binding …

With cardiovascular disease being the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide,
effective and cost-efficient therapies to reduce cardiovascular risk are highly needed. Lipids …

Rho-associated coiled-coil containing kinases (ROCK) were originally identified as effectors
of the RhoA small GTPase.–They belong to the AGC family of serine/threonine kinases and …

Rho-associated kinases ROCK1 and ROCK2 are serine/threonine kinases that are
downstream targets of the small GTPases RhoA, RhoB, and RhoC. ROCKs are involved in …

Several lines of evidence suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction plays a critical role in the
pathogenesis of microvascular complications of diabetes, including diabetic nephropathy …

Doxorubicin (DOX) is one of the most widely used and successful antitumor drugs, but its
cumulative and dose-dependent cardiac toxicity has been a major concern of oncologists in …

Background & Aims The mechanisms by which hepatocyte exposure to alcohol activates
inflammatory cells such as macrophages in alcoholic liver disease (ALD) are unclear. The …

Caspases are at the core of executing apoptosis by orchestrating cellular destruction with
proteolytic cascades. Caspase-mediated proteolysis also controls diverse nonlethal cellular …

Cardiovascular diseases, the number 1 cause of death worldwide, are frequently associated
with apoptotic death of cardiac myocytes. Since cardiomyocyte apoptosis is a highly …