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Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, is responsible for approximately 1 in 3 deaths in the US, according to the American Heart Association. World Heart Day on 29 September serves as a platform to educate people on how to take control of their heart health.
Don Whitley Scientific and our US/Canadian distributor HypOxygen would like to take this opportunity to highlight cardiovascular research being carried out around the world – and to say “thank you for being committed to our health.”
Adverse cardiac remodeling after infarction exacerbates myocardial ischemia and increases the likelihood of heart failure. Revuelta-Lopez et al. in Spain present new data showing that in the hypoxic areas of the infarct zone, expression of low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1) is linked to activation of Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) through Pyk2 phosphorylation, and propose that LRP1 modulation may be a very effective pharmacological target in heart disease. Their H35 Hypoxystation with its controlled low oxygen environment creates physiologically more relevant parameters for cell culture, mimicking ischemia/reperfusion events.
Hypothesizing that Tumor necrosis factor-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand plays a role in ischemic injury during acute myocardial infarction, Jiang et al. have found evidence for a novel immune regulatory mechanism involving TRAIL, ER stress and NF-κB signaling pathways. Culturing their cells in the Hypoxystation H35 at 0.3% oxygen allowed the lab to simulate the ischemia/reperfusion processes that cause cardiomyocyte loss and increase mortality in Coronary Heart Disease.
Hypoxia in the embryonic environment supports maintenance of a primitive glycosaminoglycan-rich heart valve matrix, the specific composition of which determines proper function, and as hypoxia decreases after birth, the extracellular matrix matures. Amofa et al. at Cincinnati’s Children’s Medical Center, using the H35 Hypoxystation, provide new data that exposure of adult heart tissue to hypoxia induces hyaluronan remodeling, GAG accumulation, and degeneration of the extracellular matrix in the heart valve, effects that are implicated in Myxomatous mitral valve disease.
Dr. Michael Cross, Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology Department, University of Liverpool, says of his work with cardiac spheroids : “The H35 allows us to generate oxygen levels that reflect the in vivo physiology these cells would be exposed to. We chose the Hypoxystation with its oxygen profiling feature, which allows us to recreate cycles of ischemia, where oxygen levels typically sink to 1-3%”.
Image from: Revuelta-Lopez et al. “Relationship among LRP1 expression, Pyk2 phosphorylation and MMP-9 activation in left ventricular remodelling after myocardial infarction” J Cell Mol Med. 2017 Sep;21(9):1915-1928
Hypoxia increases GAGs, Sox9 nuclear localization and Hyal2 expression in cAVOCs.
Image from: Amofa et al. (2017) “Hypoxia promotes primitive glycosaminoglycan-rich extracellular matrix composition in developing heart valves” Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2017 Aug 25:ajpheart.00209.2017
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