Molecular and Cellular Characterization of Cardiac Tissue in Postnatal Development
Emory University
Summary
The study team will use small pieces of human hearts which are removed as part of a required surgical procedure to study different objectives. One of the objective is how calcium ions pass through the membrane of heart cells in order to tell the heart cell how much force to contract with when the heart beats. Investigators will also study the proteins and RNA of these pieces to determine how the newborn heart cells control their force of contraction differently from adult heart cells. Investigators hypothesize that infant hearts have different regulation of calcium entry than adult hearts. The study team also wants to study combinations of 3D cardiac spheres with multiple environmental cues that can improve functional and metabolic maturation of Human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) and generate a more clinically relevant cell model.
Description
Extrapolating pharmacological and surgical therapies from adult (AD) studies to infant (INF) patients is problematic because the knowledge of cellular electrophysiology and molecular biology of human INF heart cells is limited. The investigators have studied developmental differences in rabbit ventricular cells and now extend these studies to atrial and ventricular cells isolated from AD, young adult (YAD) or INF patients. The study aims are as follows: 1. Developmental differences in transient outward current of atrial cells. Investigators will extend their studies to isolated cells and tis…
Eligibility
- Age range
- Up to 20 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: * Patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery * Patients undergoing surgery for repair of congenital heart disease such as ventricular septal defect or defective mitral or aortic valves. Exclusion Criteria: * Prior cardiac surgery * History of atrial fibrillation or other atrial arrhythmias prior to operation * History of heart failure
Location
- Emory University School of MedicineAtlanta, Georgia