Mechanobiology of Cardiac Growth in Health and Disease

The understanding of bio-humoral and mechanical intracellular signalling integration in complex transcriptional circuitries, is one of the new frontiers in developmental biology, tissue homeostasis, and pathology programming. In fact, the evidence that cells are able to translate mechanical cues in the form of strain/stretch- or positional-/geometric-dependent information, adds a new complexity to the coordination of the multicellular regulation. During its developmental process, the heart undergoes fundamental mechanical changes that promote cellular and functional maturation. Thereafter, during the adulthood, the presence of risk conditions exposes the heart to maladaptive myocardial remodeling and altered mechanical signalling that culminate into pathologies such as heart failure. In the present contribution, we will briefly discuss the role of mechanobiology in cardiac morphogenesis and the potential role of mechanical forces in cardiac disease.