1,721,016 research outputs found
Student perspectives on the use of digital resources in biomedical education
No full textThe oral contribution describes a case study on the use of digital resources for medical education in Ital
The cardiovascular unit as a dynamic player in disease and regeneration.
No full textCell-mediated cardiac regeneration remains a challenge as a therapeutic option in heart failure, but modest success using experimental models suggests that a better understanding of normal histogenesis will be needed to make progress towards cardiac regeneration. Recent studies of the heart show that the interstitium informs organogenesis and responsiveness to pathological stimuli through continuous bidirectional cross-talk between cardiomyocytes and non-cardiac cells. Here, we introduce the concept of the "cardiovascular unit" (CVU) as a building block of the heart, which includes cardiomyocytes and adjacent capillaries and fibroblasts. We discuss how the CVU might be used as a tool for re-interpreting degenerative changes of the myocardium during aging and hypertrophy, and might represent the hallmark for successful cell therapy strategies in cardiac regeneration
Essentials of Rubin's Pathology-Sixth Edition, 2014
No full textThis is the italian version of the Sixth edition of Essentials of Rubin's Pathology, which has been recently published by Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott. Contents include Chapters 1-10 of the original version
Turning science into teaching: a challenge for scientists
Full text linkTeaching basic science in the medical school remains a challenge, and the lack of appropriate resources is one of important limitation. Building up such resources is difficult, time-costly and does not always result in effective, solid and student-centered instruction.
This “personal view” aims to stimulate scientists and scientific journals to engage with new ideas and innovative resources for biomedical education. The time has now come to plan research and education as mutually beneficial activities, supporting each other rather than competing with each other. Scientific research should be converted into digital learning resources hosted by scientific journals on a regular basis, and subjected to peer-review to ensure quality and integration of contents, appropriate cognitive approach and rigorous criteria of selection.
Turning science into teaching represents an investment with mutual benefits, for students and educators. Academic educators can produce resources to face the teaching burden, and gather the opportunity to increase personal productivity. Students can take advantage from being engaged in innovative learning environments where educators act as catalysts for learning, instead of just transmitters of knowledge
Sarcoplasmic reticulum of human skeletal muscle: age-related changes and effect of training.
No full textThe effect of ageing on human skeletal muscle was investigated using needle biopsies from young and aged subjects and from aged subjects trained with different activity patterns. Histochemical staining for myofibrillar ATPase of ageing m. vastus lateralis demonstrated an unchanged fibre type distribution but a selective atrophy of type IIa and type IIb fibres. Analysis of myosin heavy chain (MHC) composition showed that type I MHC increased with ageing (P less than 0.05). The relative content of the MHC isoforms correlated with the relative area of the respective fibre types. Sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) proteins were investigated in muscle extracts by electrophoretic and immunoblotting techniques. When compared to a young control group (28 +/- 0.1 years old, n = 7) blots of post-myofibrillar supernatant proteins probed with polyclonal antibodies to the rabbit fast SR Ca-ATPase, a marker of extrajunctional SR, showed that the content of Ca-ATPase was significantly lower (P less than 0.05) in the old control group (68 +/- 0.5 years old, n = 8). On the other hand the content of calsequestrin (CS), the major intraluminal protein of SR terminal cisternae (TC), and of the 350-kDa ryanodine-binding protein, which is localized in the junctional regions of TC, did not show a concomitant decrease. These results suggest that ageing differentially affects extrajunctional and junctional SR of human skeletal muscle. These age-related changes were not observed within a group of old strength-trained subjects
MULTIPLE MCBF/TEF-1 MESSENGER-RNAS AND PROTEIN ISOFORMS ARE PRESENT IN CARDIAC AND SKELETAL-MUSCLE
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From fish to amphibians to mammals: in search of novel strategies to optimize cardiac regeneration.
Full text linkDifferent vertebrate species have different cardiac regeneration rates: high in teleost fish, moderate in urodele amphibians, and almost negligible in mammals. Regeneration may occur through stem and progenitor cell differentiation or via dedifferentiation with residual cardiomyocytes reentering the cell cycle. In this review, we will examine the ability of zebrafish and newts to respond to cardiac damage with de novo cardiogenesis, whereas rodents and humans respond with a marked fibrogenic response and virtually no cardiomyocyte regeneration. Concerted strategies are needed to overcome this evolutionarily imposed barrier and optimize cardiac regeneration in mammals
TROPONIN ISOFORM SWITCHING IN THE DEVELOPING HEART AND ITS FUNCTIONAL CONSEQUENCES
No full textThe subunits of the troponin complex-troponin C, troponin T, and troponin I-are responsible for the Ca2+-dependent regulation of contractile activity in heart and skeletal muscle. Distinct troponin T and I isoforms, generated by different genes or by alternative splicing from the same gene, are expressed during cardiac development. Troponin switching affects the Ca2+ sensitivity of the contractile system and may account for the greater resistance to hypoxia and acidosis, and the impaired responsiveness to adrenergic stimulation of the fetal and neonatal heart
Cell lineages and tissue boundaries in the cardiac arterial and venous pole. Developmental patterns, animal models and implications for congenital vascular disease
No full textMultiple cell populations with different embryological histories are involved in the morphogenesis of the cardiac arterial and venous poles as well as in the correct alignment and connection of the developing vessels with the cardiac chambers. Formation of the aorta and the pulmonary trunk is a complicated process orchestrated via a specific sequence of highly integrated spatiotemporal events of cell proliferation, migration, differentiation, and apoptosis. The peculiar susceptibility of this intricate cell network to be altered explains the frequency of congenital cardiovascular diseases of the arterial and venous poles. We review this topic from the "vascular point of view," putting major emphasis on (1) the existence of different cell lineages from which smooth muscle cells of the aorticopulmonary trunk can be derived, (2) the establishment of cell/tissue boundaries in the cardiovascular connecting regions, and (3) the animal models that can mimic human congenital defects of the arterial and venous poles of the heart
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