UC Davis

Protein kinase D (PKD) is serine/threonine kinase (member of the CaM kinase superfamily) well recognized for its roles in cell proliferation, cell survival, inflammation, immunity, and cancer. In the heart, PKD is strongly linked to cardiac remodeling and myofilament calcium (Ca) sensitivity, inducing the expression of fetal genes during pressure overload induced hypertrophy and reducing myofilament affinity for Ca in response to Gq-protein coupled receptor activation. PKD has been also demonstrated to be required for the pathologic hypertrophic remodeling induced by chronic Gs-protein coupled receptor stimulation with isoproterenol (β-AR receptor agonist) in mice. Unlike some other kinases PKD’s effects on physiological cardiomyocyte function during excitation-contraction coupling (ECC) remain unclear. This work presents an up-to-date literature review of PKD functions in the body and specifically in the heart (Chapter 1), the effects of PKD in the cardiomyocyte response to β-adrenergic stimulation (Chapter 2), the effects of angiotensin II-induced activation of PKD in the cardiomyocyte ECC (Chapter 3) and future directions (Chapter 4).