Researchers grow beating heart in lab - CNN.com

 

They took the hearts from eight newborn rats and removed all the cells. Left behind was a gelatin-like matrix shaped like a heart and containing conduits where the blood vessels had been. Scientists then injected cells back into this scaffold -- muscle cells and endothelial cells, which line blood vessels. Watch more on rebuilding hearts from scratch

The muscle cells covered the matrix walls and lined up together, while the endothelial cells found their way inside to coat the blood vessels, she said. Then the hearts were stimulated electrically.

"By two days we saw tiny, microscopic contractions, and by seven to eight days there were contractions large enough to see with the naked eye," she said. The tiny hearts could pump liquid at about one-fourth the rate of a normal fetal rat's heart.

Researchers grow beating heart in lab - CNN.com

Technorati Tags: rat heart,endothelial cells,gelatin matrix,heart failure

Framingham Heart Study expanding into genetics

Framingham SHARe, seeks to link data from the study to ongoing research into disease.

Scientists know just a small proportion of the genes most strongly linked with certain diseases. DNA and 60 years of clinical information from people in the Framingham study will strengthen the ability to identify new associations, and help scientists narrow down which genes go with which diseases. That can pave the way for huge advances in prevention and treatment, they say.

The Framingham Study is moving in new directions.  Genetics will be a major focus.
Link

Tags: CHD, Framingham, Heart Disease

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Chronic Disease Interventions Work And Are Cost Effective

Chronic Disease Interventions Work And Are Cost Effective

 

Coronary heart disease incidence can be reduced by 7-8% if 2% of energy from trans fats is replaced with polyunsaturated fat, according to analyses from the Disease Control Priorities Project. This can be achieved at less than $0.50 per head, says the FDA, if such changes are facilitated through voluntary action by the food industry or by legislation, as was the case in New York where trans fats in restaurants were barred. "With this cost and the conservative estimate of an 8% reduction in coronary heart disease, the intervention is highly cost effective at $25 - 75 per DALY averted across the developing world. Assuming the greater reduction of 40% in coronary heart disease, the intervention is cost saving," say the writers.

Chronic Disease Interventions Work And Are Cost Effective

Public Health Programs Can Be Very Effective.

Nanotechnology Propels Advances In Regenerative Medicine Research

Nanotubes help adult stem cells morph into neurons in brain-damaged rats.

Nanostructures promote formation of blood vessels, bolster cardiovascular function after heart attack

Are the two major advances discussed at a conference recently. No hint of how the nanotubes did this was supplied.

Link

Tags: nonotube, CHD, stem cells

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Heart Disease and Colon Cancer

Chan's study included 706 adults living in Hong Kong who were in their early 60s, on average.

The group included 206 heart disease patients, 208 people without heart disease, and 207 people who weren't screened for heart disease.

Each participant had a  colonoscopy, in which doctors screen the colon and rectum for cancers and other abnormal growths.

None was taking aspirin or cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, which may help prevent colon cancer. None had undergone colorectal surgery or had a colonoscopy in the past decade.

The doctors found colorectal cancer in about 4% of the heart disease patients, less than 1% of those without heart disease, and 1.4% of those not screened for heart disease.

Suspicious polyps were also more common in the heart disease patients than in the other participants, the study shows.

Link

Tags: CHD, heart disease, colon cancer

Finding a link between heart disease and colon cancer makes sense but is not addressed in my area. 

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Link Between Cholesterol And Heart Disease Explained

Science Daily — Cholesterol contributes to atherosclerosis - a condition that greatly increases the risk of heart attack and stroke - by suppressing the activity of a key protein that protects the heart and blood vessels, researchers at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine have found

Until now, however, the process by which cholesterol contributes to atherosclerosis has not been well understood.

Using an animal model, Chun-Lin Chen, a senior graduate student on Dr. Huang's research team, found that cholesterol limits the activity of a key protective protein called transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta). TGF-beta serves many important functions in the body; in the heart, it protects the aorta and other vessels from damage caused by a variety of factors, including hypertension and high blood cholesterol levels.

Cholesterol, however, suppresses the responsiveness of cardiovascular cells to TGF-beta and its protective qualities - thus allowing atherosclerosis to develop. Similarly, the research found that statins, drugs that lower cholesterol levels, enhance the responsiveness of cardiovascular cells to the protective actions of TGF-beta, thus helping prevent the development of atherosclerosis and heart disease

Dr. Huang believes that this research could lead to the development of novel and effective therapies to treat or prevent atherosclerosis. For example, drugs that enhance or promote the protective activity of TGF-beta in cardiovascular cells should be effective in treating or preventing atherosclerosis, alone or in combination with other cholesterol-lowering agents.

Link

TGF-bata could be a key factor in the elimination  of heart disease.

Tags: Heart Disease, LDL, HDL

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Biomedical researchers pinpoint gene that produces good cholesterol

A team of global scientists have identified the gene that regulates "good cholesterol," which may provide insight into a possible cure for heart disease.
San Antonio's Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research and an international team of researchers unveiled a new discovery method for pinpointing genetic causes for diseases

Researchers used this very method for identifying the gene VNN1, which regulates the production of high density lipoproteins (HDL), also known as good cholesterol. In contrast, too much low density lipoproteins, or the bad cholesterol, has been linked to the build up of plaque in the circulatory system.

This study could indicate a way to proceed in the elimination of heart disease. Watch for more on the gene VNN1.

Tags: VNN1. HDL, LDL. Heart Disease

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