BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease leading to myocardial ischemia is the most common cause of heart failure. Apelin (APLN), the endogenous peptide ligand of the APJ receptor, has emerged as a novel regulator of the cardiovascular system. METHODS AND …

Delivery of bone marrow cells (BMCs) to the heart has substantially improved cardiac function in most rodent models of myocardial infarction (MI), but clinical trials of BMC therapy have led to only modest improvements. Rodent models typically involve …

BACKGROUND: The signaling mechanisms that regulate the recruitment of bone marrow (BM)-derived cells to the injured heart are not well known. Notch receptors mediate binary cell fate determination and may regulate the function of BM-derived cells. …

AIMS: Myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with irreversible loss of viable cardiomyocytes. Cell therapy is a potential option to replace the lost cardiomyocytes and restore cardiac function. However, cell therapy is faced with a number of challenges, …

BACKGROUND: Transforming growth factor-α (TGF-α) has been shown to augment mesenchymal stem cell-mediated cardioprotection during acute ischemia and reperfusion in isolated heart models. To determine whether this pretreatment strategy would be effective …

AIMS: Blockade of mineralocorticoid receptors in the central nervous system (CNS) prevents sympathetic hyperactivity and improves left ventricle (LV) function in rats post-myocardial infarction (MI). We examined whether aldosterone produced locally in the …

RATIONALE: Mechanisms underlying diastolic dysfunction need to be better understood. OBJECTIVE: To study the role of titin in diastolic dysfunction using a mouse model of experimental heart failure induced by transverse aortic constriction. METHODS AND …

The cardiac ryanodine receptor (RyR2) is inhibited by calmodulin (CaM) and S100A1. Simultaneous substitution of three amino acid residues (W3587A, L3591D, F3603A; RyR2ADA) in the CaM binding domain of RyR2 results in loss of CaM inhibition at …

In response to stress, the heart undergoes a remodeling process associated with cardiac hypertrophy that eventually leads to heart failure. A-kinase anchoring proteins (AKAPs) have been shown to coordinate numerous prohypertrophic signaling pathways in …

The C57BL/6 mouse strain is one of the most commonly used in experimental research. It is known to differ from other strains in baseline cardiovascular phenotypes as well as in response to pressure overload induced by aortic constriction. Since the …