0000000000371492
AUTHOR
Francisco Buendía
Myocardial and lymphocytic expression of eNOS and nNOS before and after heart transplantation: Relationship to clinical status
Abstract Aims The present study investigates the expression and clinical relevance of the constitutive NO synthases in heart and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from heart failure patients. Main methods mRNA and protein levels (qRT-PCR and immunoblot) of eNOS and nNOS were determined in: i) Left ventricle (LV, n = 4) and PBMCs (n = 10) from healthy donors; ii) LV, right ventricle (RV) and PBMCs of heart failure (HF) patients (n = 32); and iii) biopsies and PBMCs of the HF patients after cardiac transplant (n = 15). Key findings Expression of constitutive NOS isoforms in heart exhibits wide variability in HF patients, but this variability was not related to aetiology, dis…
β2-Adrenoceptors and GRK2 as Potential Biomarkers in Patients With Chronic Pulmonary Regurgitation
Pulmonary regurgitation (PR) is a frequent complication after repair of congenital heart disease. Three different GRK isoforms (GRK2, GRK5, and GRK3) and two β-adrenoceptors (β1-AR and β2-AR) are present in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and their expression changes as a consequence of the hemodynamic and neurohumoral alterations that occur in some cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, they could be useful as biomarkers in PR. A prospective study was conducted to describe the expression (TaqMan Gene Expression Assays) of β-ARs and GRKs in PBMC isolated (Ficoll® gradient) from patients with severe PR before and after pulmonary valve replacement and establish if this expression corre…
Clinical Predictors of Immunotolerance in Heart Transplantation
Abstract Background and Aim The drugs routinely administered to prevent rejection often cause lethal side effects. Tolerant patients, therefore, should be identified to minimize these problems. The aim of this analysis was to identify clinical variables that may be associated with tolerance. Methods We recruited 522 heart transplants (HT), excluding combined procedures, retransplantations, pediatric recipients, and subjects who died in the first year to obtain a cohort of 375 patients. Two groups were distinguished by the presence of echocardiographic, clinical, or pathological evidence of rejection in the first year (15 echocardiograms and 10 protocol biopsies per patient); 99 tolerant pat…
β2- and β1-Adrenoceptor Expression Exhibits a Common Regulatory Pattern With GRK2 and GRK5 in Human and Animal Models of Cardiovascular Diseases.
To explore if genic expression of β(1)- or β(2)-adrenoceptors (ARs) exhibits a common regulatory pattern with G protein-coupled receptor kinase (GRK) 2, GRK3, or GRK5 expression, we determined messenger RNA levels for these genes in different tissues from human and animal models of cardiovascular disease. We measured genic expression by qRT polymerase chain reaction in the left and right ventricles or peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy (n = 21), hypertensive (n = 20), heart failure (n = 24), and heart transplanted patients (n = 17) or in left ventricle, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and kidney from spontaneously hypertensive rats or L-N-methyl-arginine-induced hypertensiv…