Publications by authors named "Ashley A Repas"

Following cardiac injury, early immune cell responses are essential for initiating cardiac remodeling and tissue repair. We previously demonstrated the importance of β2-adrenergic receptors (β2ARs) in the regulation of immune cell localization following acute cardiac injury, with deficient leukocyte infiltration into the damaged heart. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanism by which immune cell-expressed β2ARs regulate leukocyte recruitment to the heart following acute cardiac injury.

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Vasopressin type 1A receptor (V1AR) expression is elevated in chronic human heart failure (HF) and contributes to cardiac dysfunction in animal models, in part via reduced β-adrenergic receptor (βAR) responsiveness. Although cardiac V1AR overexpression and V1AR stimulation are each sufficient to decrease βAR activity, it is unknown whether V1AR inhibition conversely augments βAR responsiveness. Further, although V1AR has been shown to contribute to chronic progression of HF, its impact on cardiac function following acute ischaemic injury has not been reported.

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Background: Immune cell-mediated inflammation is an essential process for mounting a repair response after myocardial infarction (MI). The sympathetic nervous system is known to regulate immune system function through β-adrenergic receptors (βARs); however, their role in regulating immune cell responses to acute cardiac injury is unknown.

Methods: Wild-type (WT) mice were irradiated followed by isoform-specific βAR knockout (βARKO) or WT bone-marrow transplantation (BMT) and after full reconstitution underwent MI surgery.

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Chronic stimulation of β-adrenergic receptors (βAR) can promote survival signaling via transactivation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) but ultimately alters cardiac structure and contractility over time, in part via enhanced cytokine signaling. We hypothesized that chronic catecholamine signaling will have a temporal impact on cardiac transcript expression in vivo, in particular cytokines, and that EGFR transactivation plays a role in this process. C57BL/6 mice underwent infusion with vehicle or isoproterenol (Iso)±gefitinib (Gef) for 1 or 2 wk.

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β-adrenergic receptor (βAR)-mediated transactivation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been shown to promote cardioprotection in a mouse model of heart failure and we recently showed that this mechanism leads to enhanced cell survival in part via regulation of apoptotic transcript expression in isolated primary rat neonatal cardiomyocytes. Thus, we hypothesized that this process could regulate cardiac transcript expression in vivo. To comprehensively assess cardiac transcript alterations in response to acute βAR-dependent EGFR transactivation, we performed whole transcriptome analysis of hearts from C57BL/6 mice given i.

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Label-free systems for the agnostic assessment of cellular responses to receptor stimulation have been shown to provide a sensitive method to dissect receptor signaling. β-adenergic receptors (βAR) are important regulators of normal and pathologic cardiac function and are expressed in cardiomyocytes as well as cardiac fibroblasts, where relatively fewer studies have explored their signaling responses. Using label-free whole cell dynamic mass redistribution (DMR) assays we investigated the response patterns to stimulation of endogenous βAR in primary neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts (NRCF).

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β-Adrenergic receptor (βAR)-mediated transactivation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been shown to relay pro-survival effects via unknown mechanisms. We hypothesized that acute βAR-mediated EGFR transactivation in the heart promotes differential subcellular activation of ERK1/2 and Akt, promoting cell survival through modulation of apoptosis. C57BL/6 mice underwent acute i.

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