(Press-News.org)
Researchers in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, Australia, and collaborating institutions report a groundbreaking discovery in cardiac regeneration that offers new hope for the treatment of ischemic heart failure. Published in npj Regenerative Medicine, the study reveals a novel approach to promoting cardiomyocyte proliferation.
“When the heart cannot replace injured cardiomyocytes with healthy ones, it becomes progressively weaker, a condition leading to heart failure. In this study, we investigated a new way to stimulate cardiomyocyte proliferation to help the heart heal,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Riham Abouleisa, assistant professor in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Baylor.
Previous studies showed that calcium plays an important role in cardiomyocyte proliferation. In the current study, Abouleisa and her colleagues explored how modulating calcium influx in cardiomyocytes would affect their proliferation.
“We found that preventing calcium influx in cardiomyocytes enhances the expression of genes involved in cell proliferation,” Abouleisa said. “We prevented calcium influx by inhibiting L-Type Calcium Channel (LTCC), a protein that regulates calcium in these cells. Our findings suggest that LTCC could be a target for developing new therapies to induce cardiomyocyte proliferation and regeneration.”
The study demonstrates that both pharmacological and genetic inhibition of LTCC can induce cardiomyocyte replication and that this occurs by modulating the activity of calcineurin, a known regulator of cardiomyocyte proliferation. This innovative approach showed promising results both in human cardiac slices grown in the lab and in live animals.
“Abouleisa’s multi-continent collaborations led to a discovery that can revolutionize the use of current medicines that regulate calcium entry to the cells, such as Nifedipine, in heart failure patients,” said Dr. Tamer Mohamed, co-author and director of Baylor College of Medicine’s Laboratory for Cardiac Regeneration.
Co-author Dr. Todd K. Rosengart, chair and professor of the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, emphasized that, “The premise of regenerating heart tissue, which once seemed like an impossible dream, is getting closer almost daily. The work of Dr. Abouleisa and the Baylor cardiac regeneration team represents a major step toward human trials that I believe are in the not-too-distant future."
Abouleisa and her colleagues’ research highlights the importance of targeting calcium signaling pathways to unlock the regenerative potential of the heart and opens new avenues for developing cardiac regenerative therapies, potentially transforming the treatment landscape for patients suffering from heart failure.
Other contributors to this work include Lynn A C Devilée, Abou Bakr M Salama, Jessica M Miller, Janice D Reid, Qinghui Ou, Nourhan M Baraka, Kamal Abou Farraj, Madiha Jamal, Yibing Nong, Douglas Andres, Jonathan Satin and James E Hudson.
For a complete list of authors’ affiliations and support for this study, see the publication.
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Elevated concentrations of fluoride can occur in well water, and in some countries, it is added to drinking water to counteract caries in the population. A study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now supports a few previous studies indicating that exposure to fluoride during the fetal stage or early childhood may impair cognition in children. The study is published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
Fluoride occurs naturally as fluoride ions in drinking water, but the concentrations are generally low in ...
A recent study published in Engineering presents a significant advancement in improving the toughness of polypropylene (PP), a widely used thermoplastic material. The research, led by Zhiyi Zhang and Qiang Zheng from Taiyuan University of Technology and Zhejiang University, focuses on developing a novel core–shell structured composite to enhance PP’s performance at low temperatures.
PP has many advantages, such as high thermal and chemical resistance, but its low-temperature toughness is a limiting ...
A new report looking at adults’ views on education topics shows more partisan agreement about how to educate students for citizenship than many might think, yet sharp partisan divide around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion policies on college campuses and free speech.
The report, published by the USC Center for Applied Research in Education, a center housed within USC Dornsife’s Center for Economic and Social Research, in partnership with the USC EdPolicy Hub, is based on a nationally representative, probability-based ...
Researchers from the University of Electro-Communications (Akira Sumiyoshi and Jun Nakamura) and Tohoku University (Kohei Yamasue and Yasuo Cho) have made a significant advancement in visualizing the local dipole moments at the semiconductor surface. This study offers unprecedented insights into the atomic-scale charge distribution and dipole configuration using a combination of the scanning nonlinear dielectric microscope (SNDM) and advanced density functional theory (DFT) calculations.
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The new work places Heliconia among a select group of plants to undergo a detailed, comprehensive ...
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The researchers spent three years collecting over twenty thousand hours of sound recordings from a wild population of great tits (Parus major) in Oxfordshire, which has been studied for the past 77 years as part of the Wytham Great Tit study. ...
About 7% of U.S. adults have been present at the scene of a mass shooting in their lifetime, and more than 2% have been injured during one, according to new University of Colorado Boulder research.
The study, published March 7 in the journal JAMA Network Open, also found that younger generations were significantly more likely to have been exposed than their parents or grandparents were.
Generation Z— adults born after 1996—were at greatest risk.
“This study confirms that mass shootings are not isolated tragedies, but ...
About The Study: In this systematic review and meta-analysis of depression and anxiety among individuals with chronic pain, approximately 40% of adults had clinically significant depression and anxiety. Women, younger people, and people with nociplastic pain were most likely to have depression and anxiety. The co-occurrence of chronic pain with depression and anxiety is a significant public health concern necessitating routine screening in clinical settings, equitable access to specialty care, and innovative treatment development.
Corresponding Author: To contact ...
About The Study: The findings from this survey study of U.S. adults underscore the extensive and often overlooked regular exposure to mass shootings in this country. The demographic disparities in exposure highlight the need for targeted interventions and support for the most affected groups, particularly younger generations and males. Understanding these patterns is essential for addressing the broader impacts of gun violence on public health and community well-being.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, David C. Pyrooz, PhD, email david.pyrooz@colorado.edu.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website ...
