TNF-α in the cardiovascular system: from physiology to therapy

Abstract:

Signaling pathways induced by the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) play a key role in the cellular responses to inflammation and injury. In the cardiovascular system, TNF-α-activated signal transduction pathways may contribute to vascular dysfunction, development and progression of atherosclerosis, and adverse cardiac remodeling following myocardial infarction and heart failure. This review addresses the role of TNF-α in vascular physiology and disease. Furthermore, the therapeutic benefits of systemic TNF-α antagonism in cardiovascular and autoimmune inflammatory diseases are summarized and critically discussed.

Keywords::

• TNF-α
• vascular inflammation
• atherosclerosis
• shear stress
• heart failure
• TNF-α antagonists

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG CI 162/2-1), ELAN-Fonds of University Hospital Erlangen (research grant to KU), and by the EU “NanoAthero” project (FP7-NMP-2012-LARGE-6-309820). The authors would like to thank Margarete Goppelt-Struebe for critical reading and editing of the manuscript.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.