Aims: Although there is evidence linking sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake with the development of cardio-metabolic diseases, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. The current study therefore evaluated the effects of SSB consumption by …

Ultrasound is the most commonly used clinical imaging modality. However, in applications requiring cell-labeling, the large size and short active lifetime of ultrasound contrast agents limit their longitudinal use. Here, 100 nm radius, clinically …

Recently, we provided genetic basis showing that mitochondrial dysfunction can trigger motor neuron degeneration, through identification of CHCHD10 encoding a mitochondrial protein. We reported patients, carrying the p.Ser59Leu heterozygous mutation in …

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is a noninvasive technique for melanin detection within melanoma metastases. While ex vivo and early studies suggest promising clinical application, there are no standardized parameters for defining presence of melanoma …

Several factors have been implicated in obesity-related hypertension, but the genesis of the hypertension is largely unknown. We found a significantly upregulated expression of CPI-17 and protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms in the vascular smooth muscles of …

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Shenmai injection (SMI) is a CFDA-approved and widely prescribed herbal medicine injection in China for treating cardiac dysfunction, especially myocardial ischemia and reperfusion (I/ R) injury. However, despite of its …

Heart performance relies on highly coordinated excitation–contraction (EC) coupling, and defects in this critical process may be exacerbated by additional genetic defects and/or environmental insults to cause eventual heart failure. Here we report a …

Alcoholic cardiomyopathy (ACM) caused by alcohol consumption manifests mainly as by maladaptive myocardial function, which eventually leads to heart failure and causes serious public health problems. The (pro)renin receptor (PRR) is an important member of …

We and others have reported that calpain-1 was increased in myocardial mitochondria from various animal models of heart disease. This study investigated whether constitutive up-regulation of calpain-1 restricted to mitochondria induced myocar- dial injury …

AIMS: Recent studies reported that cAMP-binding protein Epac1-deficient mice were protected against various forms of cardiac stress, suggesting that pharmacological inhibition of Epac1 could be beneficial for the treatment of cardiac diseases. To test …