Welcome to the Uchida lab

How do hearts grow?

Proliferative cells (like the HEK293 cells shown below) spend most of their resources to double in size, and then divide into two cells.

Adult heart muscle cells or cardiomyocytes are different. After the first few weeks of life, cardiomyocytes stop dividing and live as long as the organism. Cardiomyocytes make up the bulk of the heart muscle and the size and shape of the heart directly correlates with the size and shape of the cardiomyocyte.

 Cardiomyocytes respond to physiological and pathological stimuli (development, exercise, hypertension, etc.) by growing in length and/or width. Excessive growth in length or width can lead to dilation of the chambers or thickening of the myocardial wall, respectively, and each are associated wtih different diseases.

The Uchida lab seeks to understand the unique molecular mechanisms that drive cardiomyocyte growth to identify pathways that can be targeted for diseases associated with excessive cardiac growth.