Editorial: Crucial Role of Redox Signaling in the Regulation of Heart Health

Overwhelming evidence exists in the literature to support the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as intracellular signaling molecules. Several degenerative diseases including coronary heart disease, have been linked with the overproduction of ROS. Many coronary heart diseases including ischemic heart disease cause cardiomyocytes to face conditions that shift their redox status to undergo a drastic change subjecting them to oxidative stress. Cardiomyocytes contain enzymes that constantly generate ROS and intracellular redox buffer in response to a specific stress developed from the dsease process. Depending on the amount of antioxidant reserve, ROS is either destroyed or persist. If ROS is overwhelming, they destroy cells, but on the other hand, if ROS activity if minimal, they may function as signaling molecules and function as savior rather than destroyer. The intention of this minireview series is to provide evidence that ROS indeed function as signaling molecules and serve to protect the cardiac cells against the disease.