http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Researchers at the National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) have successfully created a human heart cell model of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), an inherited heart muscle disorder which puts one at high risk of developing life-threatening arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. The NHCS research team discovered that key characteristics of the disease, such as abnormal "fatty changes" and altered distribution of proteins involved in cell-cell connections (called desmosomal proteins) are reproduced in the heart cells. This novel cellular model for studying the disease could help to improve understanding on how these mutations lead to arrhythmias and clinical manifestations of ARVC. The study, the first of its kind in the world, was published in the European Heart Journal, a top ranking international peer-reviewed journal, in July 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-world-human-heart-cell.html Medical research Thu, 25 Oct 2012 10:50:01 EST news270378751 Restoring diminished levels of a protein shown to prevent and reverse heart failure damage could also have therapeutic applications for patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI), suggests a new preclinical study published online October 9 in Circulation Research from researchers at the Center for Translational Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University . http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-loss-heart-failure-protein-linked.html Medical research Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:10:51 EST news269093441 A new regulator for heart formation has been discovered by studying how embryonic stem cells adjust the packaging of their DNA. This approach to finding genetic regulators, the scientists say, may have the power to provide insight into the development of any tissue in the body – liver, brain, blood and so on. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-dynamics-dna-packaging-formation-heart.html Medical research Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:57:15 EST news267973028 (Medical Xpress)—Cardiac stress, for example a heart attack or high blood pressure, frequently leads to pathological heart growth and subsequently to heart failure. Two tiny RNA molecules play a key role in this detrimental development in mice, as researchers at the Hannover Medical School and the Göttingen Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry have now discovered. When they inhibited one of those two specific molecules, they were able to protect the rodent against pathological heart growth and failure. With these findings, the scientists hope to be able to develop therapeutic approaches that can protect humans against heart failure. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-heart-failure-mice.html Cardiology Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:54:12 EST news267810840 (Medical Xpress)—A fluorescent protein from a deep-sea jellyfish has helped scientists isolate heart cells in the laboratory, creating an invaluable aid to work on heart disease treatments and extraordinary opportunities for stem cell researchers around the world. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-fluorescent-protein-scientists-heart-stem.html Medical research Mon, 24 Sep 2012 06:37:04 EST news267687415 Triclosan, an antibacterial chemical widely used in hand soaps and other personal-care products, hinders muscle contractions at a cellular level, slows swimming in fish and reduces muscular strength in mice, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the University of Colorado. The findings appear online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-triclosan-chemical-widely-antibacterial.html Medical research Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:00:08 EST news264066027 UCLA stem cell researchers have found for the first time a surprising and unexpected plasticity in the embryonic endothelium, the place where blood stem cells are made in early development. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-embryonic-blood-vessels-stem-cells.html Medical research Thu, 02 Aug 2012 12:00:16 EST news263127566 A detailed study of heart muscle function in mice has uncovered evidence to explain why exercise is beneficial for heart function in type 2 diabetes. The research team, led by scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, found that greater amounts of fatty acids used by the heart during stressful conditions like exercise can counteract the detrimental effects of excess glucose and improve the diabetic heart's pumping ability in several ways. The findings also shed light on the complex chain of events that lead to diabetic cardiomyopathy, a form of heart failure that is a life-threatening complication of type 2 diabetes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-heart-function-diabetics.html Diabetes Tue, 17 Jul 2012 10:50:57 EST news261741050 Cardiomyocytes, the workhorse cells that make up the beating heart, can now be made cheaply and abundantly in the laboratory. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-stem-cell-technique-abundance-key.html Medical research Mon, 28 May 2012 15:00:11 EST news257415820 For the first time scientists have succeeded in taking skin cells from heart failure patients and reprogramming them to transform into healthy, new heart muscle cells that are capable of integrating with existing heart tissue. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-scientists-patients-skin-cells-heart.html Cardiology Wed, 23 May 2012 04:11:11 EST news256965049 Blocking a protein in the heart that is produced under stressful conditions could be a strategy to prevent cardiac damage that results from chemotherapy, a new study suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-heart-chemo-linked-stress-cardiac.html Cardiology Mon, 21 May 2012 15:00:42 EST news256820399 Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have shown the ability to turn scar tissue that forms after a heart attack into heart muscle cells using a new process that eliminates the need for stem cell transplant. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-scar-tissue-heart-muscle-stem.html Cardiology Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:00:02 EST news254665952 Just a handful of cells in the embryo are all that's needed to form the outer layer of pumping heart muscle in an adult zebrafish. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-cell-clones-heart-muscle.html Medical research Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:00:14 EST news254577455 Structural changes in heart muscle cells after heart failure can be reversed by allowing the heart to rest, according to research at Imperial College London. Findings from a study in rats published today in the European Journal of Heart Failure show that the condition's effects on heart muscle cells are not permanent, as has generally been thought. The discovery could open the door to new treatment strategies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-heart-failure-effects-cells-reversed.html Cardiology Mon, 02 Apr 2012 04:31:06 EST news252559857 The latest research developments to reprogram scar tissue resulting from myocardial infarction (MI) into viable heart muscle cells, were presented at the Frontiers in CardioVascular Biology (FCVB) 2012 meeting, held 30 March to 1 April at the South Kensington Campus of Imperial College in London. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-scar-tissue-hearts.html Cardiology Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:35:46 EST news252502521 (Medical Xpress) -- University of California, San Diego researchers have developed a new injectable hydrogel that could be an effective and safe treatment for tissue damage caused by heart attacks. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-gel-tissue-heart.html Cardiology Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:20:00 EST news249124790 The heart relies heavily on oxidation of fatty acids for energy production. However, excess storage of fatty acids as triglycerides, within heart muscle cells, frequently observed in patients with obesity and diabetes, is often associated with cardiac dysfunction. The question remained: was this cause and effect? Now a team of investigators shows that baseline heart function "showed moderate, but significant improvement" in mouse models that overproduce an enzyme that breaks down these triglycerides, says principal investigator Jason Dyck, of the University of Alberta, Edmonton. The research is published in the February Molecular and Cellular Biology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-breakdown-triglycerides-heart-muscle-boosts.html Cardiology Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:59:17 EST news248540347 Millions of people suffer from type 2 diabetes. The leading cause of death in these patients is heart disease. Joseph Hill and colleagues, at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, have now identified, through their work in mice, a potential new therapeutic approach to reduce the prevalence of heart failure and improve the long-term survival of patients with type 2 diabetes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-death-diabetics-heart-problem.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:37:07 EST news248362600 Healthy, new heart cells have been generated by animals with chronic ischemic heart disease after receiving stem cells derived from cardiac biopsies or "cardiospheres," according to research conducted at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-heart-cells-percent-stem-cell.html Cardiology Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:09:31 EST news240577765 The heartbeat is the result of rhythmic contractions of the heart muscle, which are in turn regulated by electrical signals called action potentials. Action potentials result from the controlled flow of ions into heart muscle cells (depolarization) through channels in their membranes, and are followed by a compensating reverse ion current (repolarization), which restores the original state. If the duration of the repolarization phase is not just right, the risk of ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death increases significantly. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-rhythm-ion-channels-heart.html Cardiology Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:45:51 EST news234780336 (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 As our bodies first form, developing cells are a lot like children put on the school bus with their names and addresses pinned to their shirts. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-mutations-spur-dangerous-identity-crisis.html Medical research Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:26:37 EST news228734575 A promising cancer treatment drug can restore function of a heart en route to failure from high blood pressure, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-drug-reverse-overgrown-hearts-heart.html Medical research Tue, 31 May 2011 03:49:20 EST news226032542