Projects / Programmes
Vpliv laminarnega toka na endotelij (Slovene)
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 3.06.00 |
Medical sciences |
Cardiovascular system |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 3.02 |
Medical and Health Sciences |
Clinical medicine |
Researchers (8)
Organisations (1)
Significance for science
Left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) save lives of patients with terminal heart failure. Understanding of the effects of the laminar flow produced by LVAD on endothelial function is extremely important and even urgent since several thousands of patients have already undergone the implantation of LVAD, but our understanding of the overall physiological effect of this treatment is scarce. Presently LVAD is used mainly to overcome the critical period before the heart transplantation, but the ultimate goal is to develop LVADs suitable as a surrogate for the transplantation. It is also not known whether the possible side effects of LVAD implantation are the consequence of constant laminar flow, or they are a consequence of causative agents that have lead to heart insufficiency.
Contribution of the results of the study to science development in the field is:
- evaluation of the effects of LVAD implantation in patients
- evaluation of molecular mechanisms leading to adaptation to laminar flow
- explanation of mechanisms of cell responses to noxious agents.
Here we will mention only a few of more prominent results:
-..results of in vitro experiments show that de decrease of pulsatile pressure does not cause remodelling of the arteries, at least not during the observation period.
- Implantation of LVAD to experimental animals with chronic heart failure caused reverse remodelling of heart muscle and decreased the level of ET-1, which corroborates the previous finding.
- chronic exposure to ecotoxin MC-YR causes severe heart failure
- discovery of a novel mechanism of cell response to stress, which shares identical steps as apoptosis, but is reversible. The new process was named »pre-apoptotic cell stress response«. The results were published in a journal with high impact factor (11).
Significance for the country
The impact of the project for the development of Slovenia:
• health improvement, improvement of the quality of life, treatment of heart disease
• development of an alternative to heart transplants due to the lack of suitable organs
• transfer of the knowledge on the state-of-the-art treatment to Slovenia
• transfer of the basic knowledge into clinical practice
• improved prognosis of the terminal heart patients.
The major part of the clinical studies was performed in collaboration with THC and Baylor College in Houston, the leading institutions for the implantation of LVAD. For Slovenia it is extremely important to collaborate with THC not only in the field of basic research but also application and transfer of knowledge & techniques to Slovenia. This has already enabled the first LVAD implantations to the patients in Slovenia
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2009,
2010,
2011,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2009,
2011,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
