Rationale: Junctional membrane complexes (JMC) in myocytes are critical microdomains, in which excitation-contraction coupling occurs. Structural and functional disruption of JMCs underlies contractile dysfunction in failing hearts. However, the role of …

Background: Patients with diabetes are prone to develop cardiac hypertrophy and more susceptible to myocardial ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury, which are concomitant with hyperglycemia-induced oxidative stress and impaired endothelial nitric oxide (NO) …

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is the death of cardiomyocytes caused by a lack of energy due to ischemia. Nutrients supplied by the blood are the main source of cellular energy for cardiomyocytes. Sodium butyrate (NaB), a gastrointestinal nutrient, is …

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is caused by preterm neonatal lung injury and results in oxygen dependency and pulmonary hypertension. Current clinical management fails to reduce the incidence of BPD, which calls for novel therapies. Fetal rabbits have a …

Rapid impulse propagation in the heart is a defining property of pectinated atrial myocardium (PAM) and the ventricular conduction system (VCS) and is essential for maintaining normal cardiac rhythm and optimal cardiac output. Conduction defects in these …

Animal models of renal disease have been used in the study of pathogenesis and the- rapeutic protocols. In this study, doppler ultrasound was used to evaluate dysfunction in the renal vasculature in acute kidney injury in an animal model. Eight male …

Tissue image analysis (tIA) is emerging as a powerful tool for quantifying biomarker expression and distribution in complex diseases and tissues. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) develops in a highly complex and heterogeneous tissue environment …

Mechanical and structural changes of right ventricular (RV) in response to pulmonary hypertension (PH) are inadequately understood. While current standard biaxial testing provides information on the mechanical behavior of RV tissues using surface markers, …

The objective of this study was to identify unknown modulators of Calcineurin (Cn)-NFAT signaling. Measurement of NFAT reporter driven luciferase activity was therefore utilized to screen a human cardiac cDNA-library (~107 primary clones) in C2C12 cells …

Myocardial infarction is caused by insufficient coronary blood supply, which leads to myocardial damage and eventually the heart failure. Molecular mechanisms associated with the loss of cardiomyocytes during myocardial infarction (MI) and …