Mechanism of cardiac atrophy under weightlessness/simulated weightlessness / 生理学报

Cardiac remodeling is the heart's response to external or internal stimuli. Weightlessness/simulated weightlessness leads to cardiac atrophy and heart function declining. Understanding the mechanism of cardiac atrophy under weightlessness is important to help astronaut recover from unloading-induced cardiovascular changes after spaceflight. Unloading-induced changes of hemodynamics, metabolic demands and neurohumoral regulation contribute to cardiac atrophy and function declining. During this process, Ca(2+)-related signaling, NF-κB signaling, ERK signaling, ubiquitin-proteasome pathway and autophagy are involved in weightlessness-induced cardiac atrophy. This article reviews the underlying mechanism of cardiac atrophy under weightlessness/simulated weightlessness.

The Process of Mesenchymal Stem Cells and their Potential as Cardiac Therapeutics / 中国生物工程杂志

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), multipotent stem cells, can replicate as undifferentiated cells and have the potential to differentiate into different lineages of mesenchymal tissues, including bone, cartilage,endothelial, neural, smooth muscle, skeletal myoblasts, and cardiac myocyte cells. The ischemia-induced death of cardiomyocytes results in scar formation and reduced contractility of the ventricle. Several preclinical and clinical studies have supported the notion that MSCs therapy may be used for cardiac regeneration.When transplanted into the infracted heart, MSCs prevent deleterious remodeling and improve recovery, but the mechanism is not clear. In this work,we review evidence and new prospects that support the use of MSCs in cardiomyoplasty.