http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. UC Davis researchers have developed an accurate computer model to test the effects of medications for arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythm, before they are used in patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-heart-disease-drugs.html Medical research Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:34:12 EST news234019947 Stem cell therapies promise to regenerate the infarcted heart through the replacement of dead cardiac cells and stimulation of the growth of new vessels. New research has found the transplantation of stem cells that reside in human veins can help in the recovery of a heart attack. The findings could lead, in the next few years, to the first human clinical trial. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-mural-cells-saphenous-vein-long-term.html Cardiology Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:05:20 EST news233510709 (Medical Xpress) -- A new technique that stimulates heart muscle cells with low-energy light raises the possibility of a future light-controlled pacemaker, researchers reported in Circulation: Arrhythmia & Electrophysiology, a journal of the American Heart Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-technique-heart-cells-light-controlled-pacemakers.html Medical research Tue, 09 Aug 2011 02:20:05 EST news232074059 A synthesised compound which is also found in bear bile could help prevent disturbances in the heart's normal rhythm, according to research published today in the journal Hepatology by a team from Imperial College London. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-bile-chemical-hearts-rhythm.html Medical research Tue, 02 Aug 2011 03:40:01 EST news231474450 Enhancing the production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), an energy carrying molecule in heart cells, may shorten the heart’s recovery time after a heart attack or heart surgery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-depressed-heart-function-stress-simple.html Cardiology Tue, 19 Jul 2011 07:08:18 EST news230278079 For the past decade, researchers have tried to reprogram the identity of all kinds of cell types. Heart cells are one of the most sought-after cells in regenerative medicine because researchers anticipate that they may help to repair injured hearts by replacing lost tissue. Now, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania are the first to demonstrate the direct conversion of a non-heart cell type into a heart cell by RNA transfer. Working on the idea that the signature of a cell is defined by molecules called messenger RNAs (mRNAs), which contain the chemical blueprint for how to make a protein, the investigators changed two different cell types, an astrocyte (a star-shaped brain cell) and a fibroblast (a skin cell), into a heart cell, using mRNAs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-heart-reprogram-brain-cells.html Medical research Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:43:27 EST news229354987 (Medical Xpress) -- Researchers have for the first time succeeded in transforming a new type of stem-like cell in the adult heart, into heart muscle in mice. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-heart-built-in-mechanism.html Medical research Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:05:36 EST news226861516 Researchers at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre discovered a protein switch which can trigger a cascade of events leading to heart failure, pointing to a new direction for drug development. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-heart-scientists-protein-failure.html Medical research Mon, 23 May 2011 16:01:12 EST news225385239 (PhysOrg.com) -- A research team at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is the first to use heart cells derived from stem cells to specifically study certain genetic mechanisms of heart diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-heart-cells-derived-stem-diseases.html Cardiology Mon, 09 May 2011 07:02:07 EST news224143162 (Medical Xpress) -- Researchers at Columbia Engineering have established a new method to patch a damaged heart using a tissue-engineering platform that enables heart tissue to repair itself. This breakthrough, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is an important step forward in combating cardiovascular disease, one of the most serious health problems of our day. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-columbia-patch-heart.html Cardiology Fri, 06 May 2011 17:48:59 EST news223922905 Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a simplified, cheaper, all-purpose method they say can be used by scientists around the globe to more safely turn blood cells into heart cells. The method is virus-free and produces heart cells that beat with nearly 100 percent efficiency, they claim. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-universal-virus-free-method-blood-cells.html Medical research Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:26:15 EST news221502353 (PhysOrg.com) -- Human trials of stem cell therapy for post-heart attack patients have raised as many questions as they have answered -- because while the patients have tended to show some improvement in heart function, the stem cells do not appear to turn into heart cells or even survive. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-heart-stem-cells.html Medical research Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:47:21 EST news221471227