Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) are associated with a significant increase in cardiovascular risk. Glycemic control has, unfortunately, not been convincingly shown to reduce cardiovascular risk.1–3 The level at which blood pressure should be controlled also is controversial.4 Thus, there may be a need to focus on new therapeutic targets if we are to reduce cardiovascular risk in p...

Cardiac fibrosis is a common phenomenon in different types of heart diseases, such as ischemic heart disease, inherited cardiomyopathy mutations, diabetes, and ageing and is associated with morbidity and mortality. Increased accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) that impacts cardiac function, is the underlying cause of fibrotic heart disease. There are four different types of cardiac fibro...

Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) are associated with a significant increase in cardiovascular risk. Glycemic control has, unfortunately, not been convincingly shown to reduce cardiovascular risk.1–3 The level at which blood pressure should be controlled also is controversial.4 Thus, there may be a need to focus on new therapeutic targets if we are to reduce cardiovascular risk in p...

Relaxin is known to inhibit cardiac fibrosis. However, it is unclear whether relaxin could regulate the effects of Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA, PKC activator) on cardiac fibrosis. So the influence of relaxin on the cell proliferation and collagen expression induced by PMA in cultured cardiac fibroblasts was studied. It showed that PMA significantly increased cardiac fibroblasts prolife...

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) hold great promise in cardiac fibrosis therapy, due to their potential ability of inhibiting cardiac myofibroblast differentiation (a hallmark of cardiac fibrosis). However, the mechanism involved in their effects remains elusive. To explore this, it is necessary to develop an in vitro cardiac fibrosis model that incorporates pore size and native tissue-mimi...

Objectives: Recent studies have shown that beside elevated arterial blood pressure, humoral factors such as angiotensin II, aldosterone. endothelin or bradykinin might play a role in the cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis secondary to hypertension. In addition, it seems that perivascular fibrosis and interstitial fibrosis are controlled by independent mechanisms. Therefore, the goal of our study ...

The interleukin-33 (IL-33)/suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (ST2) pathway is a potential pathophysiological mediator of cardiac fibrosis. Soluble ST2 (sST2) is one of the main isoforms of ST2 with strong prognostic value in cardiac disease. The exact role of sST2 in cardiac fibrosis is unknown. The aim of this study was (1) to investigate myocardial expression of the IL-33/ST2 pathway in relatio...

BACKGROUND Cardiac fibrogenesis in the late stage of viral myocarditis causing contractile dysfunction and ventricular dilatation, is a major pathogenic factor for the progression of myocarditis to serious cardiovascular diseases including dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and congestive heart failure (HF). Recent studies indicate that regulatory T cells (Tregs) are involved in the fibrotic process ...

Diabetic cardiomyopathy is a cascade of complex events leading to eventual failure of the heart and cardiac fibrosis being considered as one of its major causes. miR-133a is one of the most abundantly expressed microRNAs in the heart. We investigated the role of miR-133a during severe hyperglycaemia. And, our aim was to find out what role miR-133a plays during diabetes-induced cardiac fibrosis....

Purpose: To investigate the effect of β3-adrenoceptors (β3-AR) up-regulation on fibrosis in cardiac fibroblast cells in rats and its potential mechanism. Methods: Cardiac fibroblast cells (CFB) were isolated and identified from rats’ hearts. The β3-ARupregulated cardiac fibroblast cells were constructed by lentiviral transfection technology. Thereafter, Ang II was used to induce fibrosis in car...