Monitoring BNP Expresion and Cell Size to Determine Hypertrophic Response in Human Cardiomyocytes

Cardiac hypertrophy is a condition associated with many heart diseases such as myocardial infarction, ischemia, hypertension, valvular dysfunctions, and is also observed as a toxic side effect of environmental contaminants or pharmaceutical drug candidates. It is characterized by different cellular changes including increased cell size and enhanced protein synthesis. One of the classic biomarkers for hypertrophy is B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), which is over produced in hypertrophic cardiac cells.