Cardiovascular and renal inflammation induced by Aldosterone (Aldo) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of hypertension and renal fibrosis. Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling contributes to inflammatory cardiovascular and renal diseases, but its role in Aldo-induced hypertension and renal damage is not clear. In the current study, rats were treated with Aldo-salt combined with TAK-24...

BACKGROUND Losartan plays an important role in the inhibition of myocardial fibrosis. But the underlying mechanism is not entirely clear. Emerging evidences have indicated that endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) plays a crucial role in cardiac fibrosis. Here the present study aims to first investigated the effect of Losartan on EndMT in cardiac fibrosis of spontaneous hypertensive ra...

Chymase is a protease found in mast cell granules with a variety of enzymatic functions. Chymase converts angiotensin I to angiotensin II, which is closely involved with angiogenesis by activating vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF) and matrix metalloproteases (MMP). As suggested by Akgul and Noon, chymase-positive mast cells may be closely involved with fibrosis of the heart [1]. We pre...

Because of the increase in life expectancy and a high survival rate after myocardial infarction, cardiac fibrosis is becoming one of the most important problems in cardiology. It is characterized by excessive accumulation of fibrillar collagen in the extracellular space, either because of a loss of cardiomyocytes (replacement fibrosis) and/or as an interstitial response to various chronic cardi...

abstract background iron overload is the main transfusion related side effects in patients with transfusion dependent hemoglobinopathies. severe iron deposition in tissues leads to organ dysfunction. many organs can be affected such as heart, liver, and endocrine organs. cardiac failure and liver fibrosis are the consequent of iron overload in transfusion dependent hemoglobinopathy. magnetic re...

Background Myocardial fibrosis is associated with abnormal cardiac remodeling and poor prognosis in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Currently, new cardiac MRI (CMR) techniques such as T1-mapping and extracellular volume (ECV) measurement are available to quantify diffuse myocardial fibrosis. We analyzed the size of myocardial fibrosis using preand post-contrast T1, ECV and late gadol...

Purpose: To investigate the role of sodium-hydrogen exchanger-1 (NHE-1) and exercise training on intermittent hypoxia-induced cardiac fibrosis in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), using an animal model mimicking the intermittent hypoxia of OSA. Methods: Eight-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to control (CON), intermittent hypoxia (IH), exercise (EXE), or IH combined with ex...

BACKGROUND Galectin (Gal)-3 is a β-galactoside-binding lectin and currently intensely studied as a biomarker in heart failure. Gal-3 also exerts proinflammatory effects, at least in extracardiac tissues. Objective of this study was to characterize the relationship of plasma and myocardial Gal-3 levels with cardiac fibrosis and inflammation in patients with nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy and...

BACKGROUND Cardiac fibrosis play a key role in the atrial fibrillation pathogenesis but the underlying potential molecular mechanism is still understood. However, potential mechanisms for miR-21 upregulation and its role in cardiac fibrosis remain unclear. The controls cell proliferation and processes fundamental to disease progression. METHODS In this study, immunohistochemistry, real-time R...

Cardiac hypertrophy is a common response to pressure overload and is associated with increased mortality. Mechanical stress in the heart can result in the integrin-mediated activation of focal adhesion kinase and the subsequent recruitment of the Grb2 adapter molecule. Grb2, in turn, can activate MAPK cascades via an interaction with the Ras guanine nucleotide exchange factor SOS and with other...