BACKGROUND Disturbances in oxygen levels have been found to impair cardiac organogenesis. It is known that stem cells and differentiating cells may respond variably to hypoxic conditions, whereby hypoxia may enhance stem cell pluripotency, while differentiation of multiple cell types can be restricted or enhanced under hypoxia. Here we examined whether HIF-1alpha modulated Wnt signaling affecte...

AIMS β2-Spectrin is an actin-binding protein that plays an important role in membrane integrity and the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β signalling pathway as an adaptor for Smads. Loss of β2-spectrin in mice (Spnb2(-/-)) results in embryonic lethality with gastrointestinal, liver, neural, and heart abnormalities that are similar to those in Smad2(+/-)Smad3(+/-) mice. However, to date, the ro...

OBJECTIVE Identification of novel factors that contribute to myocardial repair and collateral vessel growth hold promise for treatment of heart diseases. We have shown that transient prokineticin receptor-1 (PKR1) gene transfer protects the heart against myocardial infarction in a mouse model. Here, we investigated the role of excessive PKR1 signaling in heart. METHODS AND RESULTS Transgenic ...

Development of a functional organ requires the establishment of its proper size as well as the establishment of the relative proportions of its individual components. In the zebrafish heart, organ size and proportion depend heavily on the number of cells in each of its two major chambers, the ventricle and the atrium. Heart size and chamber proportionality are both affected in zebrafish fgf8 mu...

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) are used in cardiac tissue engineering for the regeneration of diseased hearts. We examined the differentiation of rat BMMSCs into cardiomyocyte-like cells when induced with a combined low dose treatment of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) and 5-azacytidine (5-AZA). Results showed that cell proliferation in the combined low dose treatment group ...

Chronic arsenic exposure is associated with increased morbidity and mortality for cardiovascular diseases. Arsenic increases myocardial infarction mortality in young adulthood, suggesting that exposure during foetal life correlates with cardiac alterations emerging later. Here, we investigated the mechanisms of arsenic trioxide (ATO) cardiomyocytes disruption during their differentiation from m...

The demonstration of the presence of dividing primitive cells in damaged hearts has sparked increased interest about myocardium regenerative processes. We examined the rate and the differentiation of in vitro cultured resident cardiac primitive cells obtained from pathological and normal human hearts in order to evaluate the activation of progenitors and precursors of cardiac cell lineages in p...