BBB seminar: Andreas Romaine
Cell surface receptors in the heart: triggering cardiac fibrosis and disease
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Andreas Romaine
University of Oslo
Common conditions such as hypertension cause increased mechanical stress on the heart and thereby alterations in cardiac structure and function. These alterations often culminate in heart failure, a serious disease which exhibits survival rates that are shorter than those of most cancers. Heart failure affects over 26 million people worldwide and failure with diastolic dysfunction, a defect in the filling capacity of the heart, is now the most prevalent failure type and without any specific treatment available. Defects in the filling of the heart are often due to stiffening of the cardiac tissue. Stiffening of the heart tissue is mainly caused by the accumulation of extracellular matrix components such as collagens, which surround the heart muscle cells. Which molecules expressed by cardiac cells in the heart that modulate this stiffness shall be discussed, drawing on the results from our institute and wider community.
A lack of the understanding of the basic biology of the heart during heart disease remodelling is central to the lack of identified molecular targets for treatment. Our group has thus far identified cell surface receptors belonging to the integrin and proteoglycan families as important mediators of the fibrotic response in the heart. We utilize a range of in vivo models to demonstrate these receptors are relevant in a host of cardiac diseases, including following the acute impact of a heart attack to the chronic effects of ageing.
Chairperson: Donald Gullberg, Department of Biomedicine
