Background: Mouse models of mild spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) have been extremely challenging to generate. This paucity of model systems has limited our understanding of pathophysiological events in milder forms of the disease and of the effect of SMN …

Roughly 10% of the world's population has chronic kidney disease (CKD). In its advanced stages, CKD greatly increases the risk of hospitalization and death. Although kidney transplantation has revolutionized the care of advanced CKD, clinicians have …

Tumor hypoxia is believed to be a factor limiting successful outcomes of oxygen-consuming cancer ther- apy, thereby reducing patient survival. A key strategy to overcome tumor hypoxia is to increase the preva- lence of oxygen at the tumor site. …

Pathological cardiac hypertrophy leads to heart failure (HF). The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) plays a key role in maintaining protein homeostasis and cardiac function. However, research on the role of deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) in cardiac …

In patients with sepsis, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria triggers cardiac dysfunction and heart failure, but target therapy for septic cardiomyopathy remains unavailable. In this study we evaluated the beneficial …

Fluorescence (FL) and photoacoustic (PA) imaging in the second near infrared window (NIR-II FL and NIR-II PA) hold great promise for biomedical applications because of their non-invasive nature and excellent spatial resolution properties. Methods: We …

BACKGROUND: Leukocyte- directed biosynthesis of specialized proresolving mediators (SPMs) orchestrates physiological in- flammation after myocardial infarction. Deficiency of SPMs drives pathological and nonresolving inflammation, leading to heart failure …

Mitochondria play an important role in sensing both acute and chronic hypoxia in the pulmonary vasculature, but their primary oxygen-sensing mechanism and contribution to stabilization of the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) remains elusive. Alteration of …

BACKGROUND: Human relaxin- 2 is a peptide hormone capable of pleiotropic effects in several organ systems. Its recombinant formulation (serelaxin) has been demonstrated to reduce infarct size and prevent excessive scar formation in animal models of …

Dysregulation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK1/2) is linked to several diseases including heart failure, genetic syndromes and cancer. Inhibition of ERK1/2, however, can cause severe cardiac side-effects, precluding its wide therapeutic …