Only transient increase of vascular growth factors and microvascular density after percutaneous myocardial laser.

Objective: We tested the hypothesis that percutaneous myocardial laser may stimulate microvascular growth in areas surrounding the laser channels.

Methods: We conducted a study of 24 domestic pigs, which underwent percutaneous myocardial laser to left ventricular myocardium using holmium:YAG laser. The pigs were sacrificed in groups of four after one day, 3-4 days, one week, three weeks and six weeks.

The beta1 integrin subunit is not a specific component of the costamere domain in human myocardial cells.

Studies on altered integrin receptor expression during cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure requires accurate knowledge of the distributional pattern of integrins in myocardial cells. At present the general consensus is that in cardiac muscle the beta1 integrin receptor is mainly localized to the same sarcolemmal domain as vinculin at Z-band levels ('costamere'). Since most previous studies have been focusing on myocardial integrin distribution in lower mammals, the myocardial localization of the beta1 integrin subunit was investigated in biopsies collected from the auricle of patients undergoing a coronary bypass operation.