Planetary Health: The Molecular Perspective of Environmental Changes Impacting on Cardiovascular Function
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Biology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2024) | Viewed by 282
Special Issue Editors
Interests: hypoxia; hyperoxia; cardioprotection; brain protection; reoxygenation, molecular mechanisms; apoptosis; autophagy; erythropoietin; nitric oxide; animal models; exercise; high altitude; haemoglobin; oxygen carriers; blood oxygen transport
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: cardioprotection; perioperative medicine; translational medicine; intercellular communication; ristoceutica
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Long-term human health depends on the health of the Earth, its living and nonliving systems, as well as community behaviors. Thinking about human health in a planetary way is a rapidly emerging issue and a new interdisciplinary field in the quest for new ideas to protect our life. Three phenomena are reshaping the concept of public health and the therapeutic approach: extreme climate change, increasing exposure to environmental pollutants, and massive population migrations. These phenomena are posing unprecedented health challenges that may finally exacerbate the impact of several diseases. As cardiovascular dysfunctions rank among the most devastating diseases that afflict humanity for associated rising costs for cure and assistance, there is a profound need to gather scientific information on their link with environmental changes.
Climate change, perhaps the biggest health threat facing humanity, is known to pose a significant risk to cardiovascular health, for exposure to extreme heat, which increases the risk of cardiovascular events, especially in people already at risk for these conditions. Indeed, extremely hot or cold temperatures are linked to an increased risk of death among people with cardiovascular diseases because of the extra strain on the heart. Likewise, vasoconstriction due to low temperature increases blood pressure and the risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, and other major cardiovascular events.
Environmental air, water, and food pollution have become a leading health concern, especially in developing countries, with more urbanization, industrialization, and a rapidly growing population. Prolonged exposure to pollutants is a recognized risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.
Human migration, despite providing social and economic benefits, has been shown to lead to adverse effects on cardiovascular and metabolic health, which are more pronounced among migrants moving from low- to high-income countries, and from rural to urban regions.
These planetary risk factors may lead to severe dysfunction of inter-organ communication, such as the heart-brain axis, heart-lung axis, and heart-gut axis.
The aim of this call is to gather experimental contributions and reviews that help us understand how these environmental risk factors impact cardiovascular function and decipher the molecular mechanisms at the root of these interactions. The final goal of this Special Issue is targeted at providing policymakers with adequate information to build tools that enable not simply rich, developed countries, but rather poorer emerging areas of the world to render this impact as manageably and sustainably as possible.
Prof. Dr. Michele Samaja
Prof. Dr. Vincenzo Lionetti
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- cardiovascular function
- environmental changes
- molecular mechanisms
