Endocardial Endothelium and Cardiac Contractility

Following the observation by Furchgott and Zawadski (1980) about the obligatory role of vascular endothelium in vasomotor tone, several in vitro and in vivo studies provided experimental evidences that cardiac endothelium plays a similar role in regulating cardiac function.Modulation of contractility by endothelial cells has first described for the endocardial endothelium (EE), and was then extended to vascular endothelium in the myocardial capillaries (VEMC). It has been shown that EE and VEMC release paracrine messangers such as nitric oxide (NO), endothelin and prostacyclin, both in basal conditions and under mechanical or chemical stimulation. [...]