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14Nov

Diseased hearts to heal themselves in future

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Friday, November 11, 2011

Cellular reversion processes arise in diseases of the heart muscle, for example myocardial infarction and cardiomyopathy, which limit the fatal consequences for the organ. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim and the Sch?chtermann Klinik in Bad Rothenfelde have identified a protein which fulfils a central task in this reversion process by stimulating the regression of individual heart muscle cells into their precursor cells. It is now planned to improve the self-healing powers of the heart with the help of this protein.

In order to regenerate damaged heart muscle as caused by a heart attack, for example, the damaged muscle cells must be replaced by new ones. The number of cells to be replaced may be considerable, depending on the extent of the damage caused. Simpler vertebrates like the salamander adopt a strategy whereby surviving healthy heart muscle cells regress into an embryonic state. This process, which is known as dedifferentiation, produces cells which contain a series of stem cell markers and re-attain their cell division activity. Thus, new cells are produced which convert, in turn, into heart muscle cells. The cardiac function is then restored through the remodelling of the muscle tissue.

An optimised repair mechanism of this kind does not exist in humans. Although heart stem cells were discovered some time ago, exactly how and to what extent they play a role in cardiac repair is a matter of dispute. It has only been known for a few years that processes comparable to those found in the salamander even exist in mammals.

Thomas Braun’s research group at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim has now discovered the molecule responsible for controlling this dedifferentiation of heart muscle cells in mammals. The scientists initially noticed the high concentration of oncostatin M in tissue samples from the hearts of patients suffering from myocardial infarction. It was already known that this protein is responsible for the dedifferentiation of different cell types, among other things. The researchers therefore treated cultivated heart muscle cells with oncostatin M in the laboratory and were then able to trace the regression of the cells live under the microscope: “Based on certain changes in the cells, we were able to see that almost all heart muscle cells had been dedifferentiated within six days of treatment with oncostatin M,” explains Braun. “We were also able to demonstrate the presence of various stem cell markers in the cells. This should be understood as an indicator that these cells had been switched to a repair mode.”

Using a mouse infarct model, the Max Planck researchers succeeded in demonstrating that oncostatin M actually does stimulate the repair of damaged heart muscle tissue as presumed. One of the two test groups had been modified genetically in advance to ensure that the oncostatin M could not have any effect in these animals. “The difference between the two groups was astonishing. Whereas in the group in which oncostatin M could take effect almost all animals were still alive after four weeks, 40 percent of the genetically modified mice had died from the effects of the infarction,” says Braun. The reason for this was that oncostatin M ensured clearly quantifiable better cardiac function in the unmodified animals.

The scientists in Bad Nauheim would now like to find a way of using oncostatin M in treatment. The aim is to strengthen the self-healing powers of the damaged heart muscle and to enable the restoration of cardiac function for the first time. The downside, however, is that oncostatin M was also observed to be counterproductive and exacerbated the damage in an experiment on a chronically diseased heart. “We believe that oncostatin M has considerable potential for efficiently healing damaged heart muscle tissue. What we now need is to be able to pinpoint the precise window of application to prevent any possible negative effects,” says Braun.

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Max-Planck-Gesellschaft: http://www.mpg.de

Thanks to Max-Planck-Gesellschaft for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115132/Diseased_hearts_to_heal_themselves_in_future

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25Aug

Purple Heart Homes Co-Founders Dale Beatty and John Gallina Land …

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printerPrint??|?Statesville, NC, August 22, 2011 ? Purple Heart Homes Co-founders John Gallina and Dale Beatty are two of five veterans that landed on the cover of TIME as examples of highly trained leaders coming back from the Iraq and Afghanistan (see: http://www.purplehearthomesusa.org). According to Joe Klein, ?a new kind of war means a new set of skills. Now veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are bringing their leadership lessons home, where we need them most.?

?For me it is all about answering the call,? said Purple Heart Homes Co-founder John Gallina. ?Dale and I answered the call from the governor of North Carolina during Hurricane Fran and Hurricane Floyd. And we answered the call from the President of the United States to defend our nation against terrorism during Iraqi Freedom,? Gallina added.

Gallina and Beatty are different than the three others featured on the TIME cover story because both returned injured when the vehicle they were riding in hit an anti-tank mine on November 15, 2004 that left Beatty a double amputee below the knees and Gallina with back and head injuries.

Both Beatty and Gallina learned how to become humanitarian leaders as a result of the training they received in the North Carolina Army National Guard. ?Becoming a humanitarian leader is a constant work in progress as any leadership skill is,? said Gallina. ?We were trained to work with people in distress that required immediate judgment on our part because we constantly dealt with life and death situations during hurricanes and we dealt with an uncertain enemy in Iraq that required an ability to make immediate decisions,? Gallina added.

The community of Statesville has many families that answered the call of duty and understand how important it is to help and support one another. As Gallina and Beatty reintegrated back into their community, they realized how vital family, friends and neighbors were in their healing process. ?The community is the key to helping returning veterans. They are the ones that reaped our benefits and enabled us to be socially accepted and productive individuals,? said Gallina.

Two Combat Wounded Veterans on a Mission

Dale Beatty and John Gallina?s journey together is an unbreakable bond of friendship, service, courage and leadership. Their shared experiences in the National Guard created a strong sense of community and instilled a humanitarian spirit to give back and make a difference in the lives of others that served before them in Vietnam, Desert Storm, Korea and WWII.

?Now it is about a new calling,? said Purple Heart Homes Co-founder Dale Beatty. ?Our calling is to help Service Connected Disabled Veterans that served in all wars by providing quality of life housing solutions to make life easier for them and their caregivers.?

Recognizing an unmet need, they decided to reach across the generational divide to adapt or modify existing homes older veterans already own by providing personalized housing solutions that are substantial in function, design and quality.

Beatty and Gallina are also helping Service Connected Disabled Veterans become first-time owners by taking gifted foreclosed homes and adapting them to meet each disability. ?This is intended to be a hand up and not a hand out,? said Beatty. Approved and qualified Service Connected Disabled Veterans pay a mortgage of 50% of the actual home value. They will pay that mortgage to Purple Heart Homes. At the end of 10 years the home will be deeded over to the veteran free and clear. The Service Connected Disabled Veteran is encouraged to pay it forward by working on an older veteran?s home that needs modifications.

As Joe Klein defined in TIME, ?The New Greatest Generation,? the other side of the story about Iraq and Afghanistan has not been told. ?Veterans like John Gallina and Dale Beatty, who have come back and decided to continue to serve their country, are a tiny proportion of the population and probably a small proportion of returning veterans, but they are beginning to make a real difference.?

To learn more about Purple Heart Homes, go to http://www.purplehearthomesusa.org or call 1-855-PURPLE9

Source: http://www.realestateindustrynewswire.com/purple-heart-homes-co-founders-dale-beatty-and-john-gallina-land-on-the-cover-of-time-as-representatives-of-%E2%80%98the-new-greatest-generation%E2%80%99/29146

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