HYPER-FIBRO

Cardiac fibrosis in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: elucidating the role of cardiac fibroblasts

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  • Project duration: -
  • Project status: finished
  • Funding:
    Provincial P.-L.P. 14. Mobility (Province BZ funding /Project)
  • Institute: Institute for Biomedicine

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is one of the most common genetic heart diseases and the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young people. Cardiac fibrosis, the excess deposition of extracellular matrix protein (ECM), is an important histologic feature of HCM that may interfere with the electrical conductance of the heart and accelerate the progression of heart failure. In the centre of this fibrotic process are the cardiac fibroblasts (cFB) that - in response to pathological stimuli - proliferate, migrate and differentiate into myofibroblasts (MyoFB), the predominant ECM-synthesizing cells. The molecular mechanisms involved in cardiac fibrosis in HCM are incompletely understood and to date, there is no effective treatment to attenuate the fibrotic process. TGF-β-signalling and dysregulated intracellular Ca2+ handling both play a key role for the differentiation of cFB into MyoFB and may therefore represent a relevant therapeutic target for cardiac fibrosis in HCM. The overall aim of this project is to elucidate the molecular and cellular mechanisms that lead to the development of cardiac fibrosis in HCM in primary human cFB. The specific objectives are to study cFB dysfunction with respect to their proliferation, migration and differentiation; to establish the molecular basis of pathways involved in TGF-β-induced fibrosis; and to determine the role of altered intracellular Ca2+ signalling for fibrogenesis in HCM. The project will be completed over a total duration of 24 months.

Publications
Increased compressive stiffness in cell spheroids from Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Giannopoulos D, Schlittler M, De Bortoli M, Coppini R, Cerbai E, Thurner PJ, Rossini A, Andriotis OG
(2024)
Presentation/Speech

Conference: 29th Congress of the European Society of Biomechanics | Edinburgh | 30.6.2024 - 3.7.2024

Micromechanics of cardiac spheroids
Giannopoulos D, Schlittler M, De Bortoli M, Coppini R, Petrovic M, Cerbai E, Schütz G, Thurner PJ, Rossini A, Andriotis OG (2024)
Presentation/Speech

Conference: IUTAM Symposium on Theoretical and Numerical Developments in Cellular Mechanobiology | Seville | 3.6.2024 - 5.6.2024

Large-strain behavior of cell spheroids under uniaxial compression
Giannopoulos D, Schlittler M, Coppini R, Palandri C, Stefàno P, Thurner PJ, Rossini A, Andriotis OG (2023)
Presentation/Speech

Conference: European Society of Biomechanics Austrian chapter meeting | Salzburg, Austria | 23.5.2023 - 23.5.2023

Mechanics of cell spheroids under large deformations
Giannopoulos D, Schlittler M, Thurner PJ, Rossini A, Andriotis OG (2023)
Presentation/Speech

Conference: 28th Congress of the European Society of Biomechanics | Maastricht, Netherlands | 9.7.2023 - 12.7.2023

Numerical analysis of the compression behaviour of cell spheroids
Giannopoulos D, Schlittler M, Coppini R, Palandri C, Stefàno P, Thurner PJ, Rossini A, G. Orestis GA (2023)
Presentation/Speech

Conference: X International Conference on Computational Bioengineering | Vienna, Austria | 20.9.2023 - 22.9.2023

Myocardial Fibrosis in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: A Perspective from Fibroblasts
Schlittler M, Pramstaller PP, Rossini A, De Bortoli M (2023)
MDPI AG
Journal article
International Journal of Molecular Sciences

More information: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms241914845

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241914845

Cardiac arrest: investigating causes

Defranceschi L, Schlittler M (2022)
Internet

More information: https://www.eurac.edu/en/magazine/hyper-fibro-cardiac-arrest ...

Our partners
1 - 2
  • Università degli Studi di Firenze

  • Technical University of Vienna

Project Team
1 - 3