Publications by authors named "Andrea Filardo"
Article Synopsis
- Metabolic syndrome increases the risk of coronary artery disease and affects heart function, which was studied in female mice fed a Western diet compared to those on regular chow.
- Mice on the Western diet showed increased body weight and left ventricular mass but maintained systolic and diastolic function, alongside reduced heart rate variability indicating altered cardiac balance.
- Myocytes from these mice exhibited changes in size and mechanics, with heightened cAMP and PKA activity; interventions affecting this pathway improved their function, suggesting adaptations to maintain heart performance despite diet-induced metabolic issues.
Article Synopsis
- Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture systems, especially stem-cell-derived spheroids, are increasingly recognized for their ability to better replicate in vivo conditions and support cardiac regeneration.* -
- This study evaluated three scaffold-free 3D culture methods: ultra-low attachment plates, hanging drops, and agarose micro-molds, finding that moving from 2D to 3D culture enhances cardiac stem cell differentiation into cardiomyocytes.* -
- Results showed that using agarose micro-molds for 3D culture optimally promotes cardiomyocyte yields, suggesting that 3D culture systems are effective models for studying cardiac regeneration.*
Appropriate dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) animal models are highly desirable considering the pathophysiological and clinical heterogeneity of DCM. Genetically modified mice are the most widely and intensively utilized research animals for DCM. However, to translate discoveries from basic science into new and personalized medical applications, research in non-genetically based DCM models remains a key issue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- - The study investigates how type 1 and type 2 diabetes, induced by streptozotocin (STZ), affect heart structure and function in mice, revealing key differences in cardiac health between the two diabetes types.
- - Type 1 diabetes (T1DM) led to more severe heart issues, including increased cell death and stress in heart cells compared to type 2 diabetes (T2DM).
- - The findings highlight that T1DM and T2DM cause distinct changes in heart performance and gene expression, emphasizing the need to choose the right animal model for researching diabetic heart conditions.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are predominantly an aging disease. Important sex-specific differences exist and the mechanism(s) by which this sex-by-age interaction influences CVD development and progression remains elusive. Accordingly, it is still unknown whether cell senescence, a main feature of cardiac male aging, is a significant feature also of the female aged mouse heart and whether senolytics, senescence-clearing compounds, promote myocardial repair and regeneration after myocardial infarction (MI) in aged female mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn overdose of Isoproterenol (ISO) causes acute cardiomyocyte (CM) dropout and activates the resident cardiac c-kit stem/progenitor cells (CSCs) generating a burst of new CM formation that replaces those lost to ISO. Recently, unsuccessful attempts to reproduce these findings using c-kit knock-in (KI) mouse models were reported. We tested whether c-kit haploinsufficiency in c-kitKI mice was the cause of the discrepant results in response to ISO.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF