Surgeon length of service and risk-adjusted outcomes: linked observational analysis of the UK National Adult Cardiac Surgery Audit Registry and General Medical Council Register.

Objectives: To explore the relationship between in-hospital mortality following adult cardiac surgery and the time since primary clinical qualification for the responsible consultant cardiac surgeon (a proxy for experience).

Design: Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected national registry data over a 10-year period using mixed-effects multiple logistic regression modelling. Surgeon experience was defined as the time between the date of surgery and award of primary clinical qualification.

TRPC1 transcript variants, inefficient nonsense-mediated decay and low up-frameshift-1 in vascular smooth muscle cells.

Background: Transient Receptor Potential Canonical 1 (TRPC1) is a widely-expressed mammalian cationic channel with functional effects that include stimulation of cardiovascular remodelling. The initial aim of this study was to investigate variation in TRPC1-encoding gene transcripts.

Results: Extensive TRPC1 transcript alternative splicing was observed, with exons 2, 3 and 5-9 frequently omitted, leading to variants containing premature termination codons.

Potent suppression of vascular smooth muscle cell migration and human neointimal hyperplasia by KV1.3 channel blockers.

Aim: The aim of the study was to determine the potential for K(V)1 potassium channel blockers as inhibitors of human neoinitimal hyperplasia.

Methods And Results: Blood vessels were obtained from patients or mice and studied in culture. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and immunocytochemistry were used to detect gene expression.

Interactions, functions, and independence of plasma membrane STIM1 and TRPC1 in vascular smooth muscle cells.

Stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) is a predicted single membrane-spanning protein involved in store-operated calcium entry and interacting with ion channels including TRPC1. Here, we focus on endogenous STIM1 of modulated vascular smooth muscle cells, which exhibited a nonselective cationic current in response to store depletion despite strong buffering of intracellular calcium at the physiological concentration. STIM1 mRNA and protein were detected and suppressed by specific short interfering RNA.

Tissue perfusion in non-donor and donor forearm/hand after radial artery harvest: 1- and 5-year follow-up.

Radio-labeled red cell perfusion scan of the non-donor/donor forearm/hand was undertaken, 1- and 5-years post operation, in 12 patients who had received a radial artery graft during myocardial revascularisation. Results were analysed using a Wilcoxon Signed Rank test (P-value <0.05 was taken as statistically significant).

A sphingosine-1-phosphate-activated calcium channel controlling vascular smooth muscle cell motility.

In a screen of potential lipid regulators of transient receptor potential (TRP) channels, we identified sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) as an activator of TRPC5. We explored the relevance to vascular biology because S1P is a key cardiovascular signaling molecule. TRPC5 is expressed in smooth muscle cells of human vein along with TRPC1, which forms a complex with TRPC5.

Downregulated REST transcription factor is a switch enabling critical potassium channel expression and cell proliferation.

Induction of K(Ca)3.1 (IKCa) potassium channel plays an important role in vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation. Here, we report that the gene encoding K(Ca)3.