Above: Heart on the left - healthy heart, in the middle - inflamed heart, heart on the right - fibrotic failling heart
to clinical orientated science”, by applying the group’s basic findings in mice with human material – by examining bone marrow, blood, or biopsies from a cohort of patients. The group has successfully established
an international network to get access to large databases of human heart muscle biopsies and patient data. The professor says he has a big advantage, as he is also a doctor, which means he has direct access to his own heart failure patients to directly address questions of cardiac remodelling, cardiac fibrosis and cardiac inflammation. “The group are expanding their research
into humans and in this context, we have really fruitful collaborations with several well known groups all over Europe and also Canada and the USA” he says. A second major aim for the future is to
gain a good understanding of immunological mechanisms and the role of T cells in special macro dialysis models. “This is really focused on immunological
mechanisms in the context of inflammatory heart disease where we’ve published several landmark papers. We’re now on the way to
AT A GLANCE
Project Funding: • 2008-2010- Swiss National Foundation (PPOB-102849/1), UE
• 2010- Olga Mayenfisch Foundation, UE • 2010- Hartmann Müller Foundation, UE • 2009- Swiss Heart Foundation, GK • 2010-2012- Swiss National Foundation Marie Heim-Vögtlin subsidy, GK
• 2010- Olga Mayenfisch Foundation, GK
www.projectsmagazine.eu.com
• 2010-2013- Swiss National Foundation (32003B_130771), UE & GK
• 2010- Cardiovascular Biology Prize of the Swiss Society of Cardiology, GK
• 2010- Hartmann Müller Foundation, GK • 2010- Swiss Life Foundation, UE • 2010- Swiss Heart Foundation, PB • 2011- Holcim Foundation, GK • 2011- Olga Mayenfisch Foundation, PB
35
submitting a very comprehensive model in this context,” he explains.
Future applications Not only are all these findings set to advance understanding of iDCM, but also the team expects to reveal general mechanistic principles, which can apply to other heart
responsible for the conversion from acute to chronic rejection is one of our primary interests for the near future”. In this context, Kania says, they will further expand international
their national and collaborations with other
researchers and clinicians. In a national collaboration with research groups at the
“The group are expanding their research into humans and in this context, we have really fruitful collaborations with several well known groups all over Europe and also Canada and USA”
diseases associated with strong inflammatory responses. In addition, Kania says such findings could be translated to certain cases of heart transplantation, because there are similar process conditions. “The pathophysiological events occurring during the rejection process following the heart transplantation remain the tissue remodelling with the phenotype of iDCM. Identification of early mediators
Lausanne University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, for example, the group’s research just helped to refine MRI-based imaging tools for inflammatory heart diseases. “It’s not always easy to convince reviewers,
but still we have so far been able to publish several excellent papers and I’m pretty positive that our concepts will eventually contribute to the development of novel treatment strategies against a still devastating disease,” says Eriksson.
★
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132