The role of various signaling pathway genes in the occurence and development of cardiomyogenesis and congenital heart disease

Congenital heart diseases are the common disease in birth defects .There are 120000 to 200000 children born with congenital heart disease in China each year , most of which are complex congenital heart diseases , seriously harming the health of the newborn , and bring heavy burden to commu-nity and the patient＇s family .The pathogenesis of congenital heart disease is complex , mostly of which due to the co-effects of environmental and genetic factors .Many patients get congenital heart diseases due to the combined action of multiple genes and signaling pathways , such as TGF-β, Nodal , MAPK , Wnt , Notch and homocysteine methionine signaling pathways which are closely associated with the cardiac devel -opment , and any abnormality in these genes or signal path ways may lead to congenital heart disease .In this paper , we summarizd the roles of various signaling pathways and their related genes in heart development , and how changes or abnormalities in these signaling pathways and genes caused congenital heart disease . Key words: Congenital heart disease; Tetralogy of fallot; Signaling pathway; Genetic fac-tors; Gene regulation