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| Research Trial: Prince Henry's Institute is seeking non-smoking, healthy but overweight men aged 40-70 years for a study of testosterone treatment on body fat and cardiovascular disease. more details >> |
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Media Release: 8 March 07 Beating Heart Disease Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and disability in Australia, affecting more than 3.7 million people. Every 10 minutes someone dies as a result of heart or vascular diseases. The past decade has seen a considerable increase in the prevalence of heart failure, which can be caused by cardiac fibrosis. Of those patients diagnosed with heart failure, 50 per cent will die within four years. Scientists at Prince Henry’s Institute are working to reduce these alarming statistics through the development of new strategies to treat cardiac disease. High levels of the steroid hormone aldosterone, which controls salt balance, are an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Researchers in the Steroid Receptor Biology Group, led by Professor Peter Fuller, are investigating the role of aldosterone and its receptor, the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), in the development of cardiac fibrosis. Previous work by the group has shown that MR-induced inflammation in the blood vessel wall plays a key role in the development of heart failure. It has been assumed that this cardiac inflammation is modulated by the body’s own anti-inflammatory system, involving the closely related glucocorticoid receptor (GR). However new research by Dr Morag Young and PhD student Amanda Rickard has shown that in a model of aldosterone-induced heart disease, the regular anti-inflammatory effects of GR action do not play a role in the development of cardiac fibrosis. Miss Rickard said the finding was an unexpected but significant step forward in her studies. “This finding suggests that the inflammatory response in aldosterone-induced heart disease is not related to the effects of GR. The study further highlights the importance of the MR in the initiation and progression of inflammation, cardiac fibrosis and heart disease,” she said. It is hoped that this research will pave the way for the development of new therapies and treatments for cardiac fibrosis, heart failure and hypertensive kidney disease. Miss Rickard’s research was published in the December 2006 edition of Endocrinology. She will also present her work at the US Endocrine Society meeting in Toronto in June 2007. |
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