@article{3083169,
    title = "Common pathways for primary hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy",
    author = "Kroumpouzou, E and Gomatos, IP and Kataki, A and Karayannis, M and and Dangas, GD and Toutouzas, P",
    journal = "Hybridoma and Hybridomics",
    year = "2003",
    volume = "22",
    number = "1",
    pages = "41-45",
    publisher = "MARY ANN LIEBERT INC PUBL",
    issn = "1536-8599",
    doi = "10.1089/153685903321538071",
    abstract = "Testing the hypothesis that hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy as
well as viral myocarditis share a common mitogenic growth response
pathway with mitotically competent cell types are the aims of this
study. The expression of the c-fos, H-ras and c-myc genes was
immunohistochemically determined in biopsies from 12 patients with
dilated cardiomyopathy, 24 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy,
and 4 patients with myocarditis. Normal myocardium from 9 subjects was
used as the control group. Staining results were correlated with
patient’s demographic data. C-fos, H-ras and c-myc protein
overexpression was seen in 15 patients (62.5%) with primary
hypertrophic and 4 patients (33.3%) with dilated cardiomyopathy. The
majority of hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy patients expressed
at least one of the genes studied compared with the control group
(p=0.006). Primary cardiomyopathy patients also showed a statistically
significant difference in the gene co-expression compared with the
control group (p=0.042). C-fos, H-ras, and C-myc protein expression did
not differ substantially between patients with hypertrophic and dilated
cardiomyopathy. Patients with myocarditis expressed only the C-fos
protein (n=2, 50%). C-fos, h-ras and c-myc genes are overexpressed in
patients with cardiac hypertrophy and cardiac dilation. Cardiac myocytes
respond to biomechanical stress by initiating several different
processes. One of them is oncogene expression. This results in a
hypertrophy of the myocytes proportional in length and width
(hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or with a relatively greater increase in
length than in the width (dilated cardiomyopathy)."
}