Stopping the heart from changing shape and size after damage

Regulation of human cardiac fibroblast function by specific microRNAs (Mr Christopher Trevelyan)

Leeds researchers are uncovering how cardiac fibroblast cells, the cells that help form the structural scaffold of the heart, alter the size and shape of the heart during disease. The heart is made up of several different types of cells. The majority are either muscle cells or fibroblast cells. When the heart is damaged by a heart attack, fibroblasts can multiply and migrate, contributing to the dangerous enlargement of the heart and development of heart failure. This team want to find a way to prevent fibroblasts from doing this. Like all cells, fibroblasts produce a class of tiny molecules called ‘microRNAs’. This team have identified four microRNAs produced by heart fibroblasts that are of particular interest, because they believe they’re involved in the processes that lead to the structural remodelling of the heart during disease. They will use a combination of cellular and molecular biology methods to explore in depth the role and regulation of these microRNAs in human cardiac fibroblasts. In doing so they hope to uncover new ways we could prevent fibroblasts from negatively changing the structure of the heart. This could be a way to halt the development of heart failure after a heart attack.