Projects
Cardiac resident macrophages versus recruited macrophages – developing targets to take advantage of their opposing roles in heart failure. KU Leuven
Heart disease is the most important cause of mortality in westernized nations, with heart failure, which is when the heart cannot pump sufficient blood, being the most prominent cause of hospitalizations in Europe. More than half of the heart failure patients have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). HFpEF occurs in patients that present with additional disorders such as diabetes and hypertension. There is currently no ...
Activating the neuregulin-1/ErbB4 pathway for treatment of heart failure. University of Antwerp
Mechanical ventricular support in chronic heart failure. Reversed remodeling and the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone-system. KU Leuven
Neutrophil extracellular traps in cardiac fibrosis and heart failure KU Leuven
Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) have led to a paradigm shift in studying thrombotic and inflammatory disease. NETs promote thrombus formation by providing a scaffold for platelet, red blood cell, and coagulation factor binding. We and others have recently described the contribution of NETs and the early NET inducer peptidylarginine deiminase 4 (PAD4) to cardiac fibrosis development during aging in mice. Strikingly, aged PAD4-/- mice ...
Neutrophil extracellular traps in cardiac fibrosis and heart failure KU Leuven
Integrative computer modeling of cardiorespiratory fitness for personalised profiling and prevention of early-stage heart failure KU Leuven
The surging burden of heart diseases on our society calls for tools that can adequately detect and control heart diseases before disease symptoms present. Clinical exercise tests could improve the characterisation and management of subclinical stages of cardiac disease. Yet, current practice only considers a limited selection of cardiopulmonary exercise indexes in isolation. To utilise the full value of clinical and exercise testing data, in ...
Development of ErbB4 Agonists for Treatment of Heart Failure. University of Antwerp
Towards a novel therapy to treat bleeding after left ventricular assist device implantation in patients with heart failure. KU Leuven
Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are successfully used to treat patients waiting for a donor heart or as an alternative for heart transplantation. LVADs are mechanical circulatory support devices, which pump blood from the left ventricle to the aorta. Although LVAD implantation improves the quality of life of advanced stage heart failure patients, bleeding complications are a serious side effect. Indeed, gastrointestinal bleeding is ...