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Organisation
Physiology
Research Group
Lifecycle:1 Oct 2003 → 30 Sep 2011
Organisation profile:We study the (patho)physiology of the heart as a muscular pump at the level of clinical medicine, mechanical muscle performance, cellular and molecular biology. A central theme in the laboratory is that the cardiac endothelium modulates the muscular properties of the heart through direct communication with cardiac myocytes. We hypothesize that cardiac endothelial activation/dysfunction is an important pathophysiological aspect of heart failure. Ongoing projects in the laboratory and hospital (AZ Middelheim) include: - Comparison of cardiac muscle physiology in heart failure at preserved and reduced global pump function (rat and patients). - Role of neureguline-1 as a paracrine messenger between cardiac endothelium and cardiac myocytes (in vitro). - Benefits of endothelial protection during development of diabetic cardiomyopathy (rat). - Interaction of cardiac endothelium with circulating stem cells in the normal and failing heart (rat and patients)
Keywords:HEART FAILURE, ENDOTHELIUM, CARDIAC MUSCLE, DIASTOLE
Disciplines:Cardiac and vascular medicine, Physiology