An model for cardiac organoid production: The combined role of geometrical confinement and substrate stiffness.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), carrying the patient's genetic background, open the path to advanced modeling. The feasibility of recapitulating complex pathophysiological scenarios depends on iPSC's ability to differentiate into the plurality of specific organ resident cells, on their maturation and networking. To this end, a strong interest has arisen in organoids, 3D structures, obtained by exploiting iPSC natural capability to self-assemble and rebuild organ parts.

Deciphering Abdominal Aortic Diseases Through T-Cell Clonal Repertoire of Perivascular Adipose Tissue.

Background: Recent studies suggest that immune-mediated inflammation of perivascular adipose tissue of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) contributes to disease development and progression. Whether the perivascular adipose tissue of AAA is characterized by a specific adaptive immune signature remains unknown.

Methods And Results: To investigate this hypothesis, we sequenced the T-cell receptor β-chain in the perivascular adipose tissue of patients with AAA and compared it with patients with aortic occlusive disease, who share the former anatomical site of the lesion and risk factors but differ in pathogenic mechanisms.

Whole-Blood Transcriptome Unveils Altered Immune Response in Acute Myocardial Infarction Patients With Aortic Valve Sclerosis.

Background: Aortic valve sclerosis (AVSc) presents similar pathogenetic mechanisms to coronary artery disease and is associated with short- and long-term mortality in patients with coronary artery disease. Evidence of AVSc-specific pathophysiological traits in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is currently lacking. Thus, we aimed to identify a blood-based transcriptional signature that could differentiate AVSc from no-AVSc patients during AMI.

Whole-Blood Transcriptional Profiles Enable Early Prediction of the Presence of Coronary Atherosclerosis and High-Risk Plaque Features at Coronary CT Angiography.

Existing tools to estimate cardiovascular (CV) risk have sub-optimal predictive capacities. In this setting, non-invasive imaging techniques and omics biomarkers could improve risk-prediction models for CV events. This study aimed to identify gene expression patterns in whole blood that could differentiate patients with severe coronary atherosclerosis from subjects with a complete absence of detectable coronary artery disease and to assess associations of gene expression patterns with plaque features in coronary CT angiography (CCTA).

Trained Immunity in Perivascular Adipose Tissue of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm-A Novel Concept for a Still Elusive Disease.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a chronic, life-threatening vascular disease whose only therapeutic option is a surgical repair to prevent vessel rupture. The lack of medical therapy results from an inadequate understanding of the etiopathogenesis of AAA. Many studies in animal and human models indicate a 'short-circuiting' of the regulation of the inflammatory-immune response as a major player in the AAA chronic process.

Circulating MicroRNAs as Novel Biomarkers in Risk Assessment and Prognosis of Coronary Artery Disease.

Coronary artery disease is among the leading causes of death worldwide. Nevertheless, available cardiovascular risk prediction algorithms still miss a significant portion of individuals at-risk. Thus, the search for novel non-invasive biomarkers to refine cardiovascular risk assessment is both an urgent need and an attractive topic, which may lead to a more accurate risk stratification and/or prognostic score definition for coronary artery disease.

Digital PCR for high sensitivity viral detection in false-negative SARS-CoV-2 patients.

Patients requiring diagnostic testing for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are routinely assessed by reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) amplification of Sars-CoV-2 virus RNA extracted from oro/nasopharyngeal swabs. Despite the good specificity of the assays certified for SARS-CoV-2 molecular detection, and a theoretical sensitivity of few viral gene copies per reaction, a relatively high rate of false negatives continues to be reported. This is an important challenge in the management of patients on hospital admission and for correct monitoring of the infectivity after the acute phase.

Cardiac arrhythmia catheter ablation procedures guided by x-ray imaging: N-acetylcysteine protection against radiation-induced cellular damage (CARAPACE study): study design.

Purpose: Catheter ablation (CA) procedures are characterized by exposure to ionizing radiations (IR). IR can cause DNA damage and may lead to carcinogenesis if not efficiently repaired. The primary endpoint of this study is to investigate whether intravenous administration of N-acetylcysteine prior to CA procedure may prevent systemic oxidative stress and genomic DNA damage induced by exposure to IR.

Human Cardiac Mesenchymal Stromal Cells From Right and Left Ventricles Display Differences in Number, Function, and Transcriptomic Profile.

Background: Left ventricle (LV) and right ventricle (RV) are characterized by well-known physiological differences, mainly related to their different embryological origin, hemodynamic environment, function, structure, and cellular composition. Nevertheless, scarce information is available about cellular peculiarities between left and right ventricular chambers in physiological and pathological contexts. Cardiac mesenchymal stromal cells (C-MSC) are key cells affecting many functions of the heart.

Circulating MicroRNAs as Potential Predictors of Anthracycline-Induced Troponin Elevation in Breast Cancer Patients: Diverging Effects of Doxorubicin and Epirubicin.

Anthracyclines are anti-neoplastic drugs presenting cardiotoxicity as a side effect. Cardiac troponins (cTn) and echocardiography are currently used to assess cardiac damage and dysfunction, but early biomarkers identifying patients in need of preventive treatments remain a partially met need. Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) represent good candidates, so we investigated their possible roles as predictors of troponin elevation upon anthracycline treatment.

Plasmatic and chamber-specific modulation of cardiac microRNAs in an acute model of DOX-induced cardiotoxicity.

Background: Doxorubicin (DOX) is a chemotherapeutic drug limited in its usefulness by an adverse side effect, cardiotoxicity. The mechanisms leading to this detrimental occurrence are not completely clear, and lately many authors focused their attention on the possible role of microRNAs (miRNAs), small regulators of cardiovascular functions, in this phenomenon. Notably, these molecules recently emerged also as potential circulating biomarkers of several cardiac diseases.

A negative association of schizophrenia with an allele of the HLA DQB1 gene among African-Americans.

Using polymorphisms of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) DQB1 gene, a case-control study was conducted in a group of patients with schizophrenia (DSM-III, n = 58) and psychiatrically normal controls matched for ethnicity (n = 72), living in the same geographical area. A significant negative association of allele HLA DQB1*0602 with schizophrenia was present among African-Americans (odds ratio 0.19), but could not be detected in Caucasians.

Susceptibility to type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus in Spanish patients correlates quantitatively with expression of HLA-DQ alpha Arg 52 and HLA-DQ beta non-Asp 57 alleles.

HLA-DQ alpha and beta alleles were chosen as the most sensitive Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus susceptibility markers for evaluating the disease associations and Type 1 diabetes risk in a population-based registry from Madrid. The absence of aspartic acid in position 57 of the DQ beta chain (non-Asp 57), and the presence of arginine in position 52 of the DQ alpha chain (Arg 52) were found to be reliable markers of Type 1 diabetes susceptibility among the Spanish population, with significantly higher frequencies among the cases of Type 1 diabetes compared to randomly selected non-diabetic control subjects from the general Madrid population. While non-Asp 57 homozygosity conferred an absolute risk of 32.

NKR-P1, a signal transduction molecule on natural killer cells.

Natural killer (NK) cells are a subpopulation of large granular lymphocytes characterized by densely staining azurophilic granules. NK cells are able to recognize and lyse various virally infected or neoplastic target cells without previous sensitization or major histocompatibility complex restriction. A 60-kD disulfide-linked dimer, highly expressed on NK cells, was found capable of mediating transmembrane signaling.