Global Cardiology Science and Practice - Volume 2013, Issue 3

Lower vertebrates, such as newt and zebrafish, retain a robust cardiac regenerative capacity following injury. Recently, our group demonstrated that neonatal mammalian hearts have a remarkable regenerative potential in the first few days after birth. Although adult mammals lack this regenerative potential, it is now clear that there is measurable cardiomyocyte turnover that occurs in the adult mammalian heart. In both neonatal and ad Read More

Transmembrane sodium (Na+) fluxes and intracellular sodium homeostasis are central players in the physiology of the cardiac myocyte, since they are crucial for both cell excitability and for the regulation of the intracellular calcium concentration. Furthermore, Na+ fluxes across the membrane of mitochondria affect the concentration of protons and calcium in the matrix, regulating mitochondrial function. In this review we first analyze t Read More

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a complex cardiac condition characterized by variable degrees of asymmetric left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy, generally associated with mutations in sarcomere protein genes. While generally perceived as rare, HCM is the most common genetic heart disease with over one million affected individuals in Europe alone and represents a prevalent cause of sudden cardiac death in the young. To date, HCM re Read More

Ventricular arrhythmias in young people most commonly occur due to the presence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, long QT syndrome or Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. We present a case in which the patient had exercise induced syncopal spells and was found to have ventricular tachycardia (VT) during both exercise stress testing and an electrophysiology study. Further genetic studies showed a previously unseen desmosomal gen Read More

The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) regulates the body's hemodynamic equilibrium, circulating volume, and electrolyte balance, and is a key therapeutic target in hypertension, the world's leading cause of premature mortality. Hypertensive disorders are strongly linked with an overactive RAAS, and RAAS inhibitors, like angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), are routinely used t Read More

High resolution information about the three-dimensional (3D) structure of myosin filaments has always been hard to obtain. Solving the 3D structure of myosin filaments is very important because mutations in human cardiac muscle myosin and its associated proteins (e.g. titin and myosin binding protein C) are known to be associated with a number of familial human cardiomyopathies (e.g. hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and dilated cardiomyop Read More

In recent years, several landmark studies have provided compelling evidence that cardiomyogenesis occurs in the adult mammalian heart. However, the rate of new cardiomyocyte formation is inadequate for complete restoration of the normal mass of myocardial tissue, should a significant myocardial injury occur, such as myocardial infarction. The cellular origin of postnatal cardiomyogenesis in mammals remains a controversia Read More

Designing of biologically active scaffolds with optimal characteristics is one of the key factors for successful tissue engineering. Recently, hydrogels have received a considerable interest as leading candidates for engineered tissue scaffolds due to their unique compositional and structural similarities to the natural extracellular matrix, in addition to their desirable framework for cellular proliferation and survival. More recently, the ability to control Read More