Integrated study of the muscle fiber, extracellular matrix, microcirculation and autonomous nervous system in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular remodeling

• Grant number: 99/00322-9
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• Duration: June 01, 2000 - May 31, 2005
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Pathological Anatomy and Clinical Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Maria de Lourdes Higuchi
• Grantee: Maria de Lourdes Higuchi
• Host Institution: Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da USP (HCFMUSP). Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Pesquisadores principais: Paulo Sampaio Gutierrez ; Vera Demarchi Aiello

Abstract

Cardiovascular system may be considered as a network of pipes with the aim of distributing nutrients and oxygen to all cells of the organism. In this context, we may consider the heart as having a similar but more complex structure as the vessels, because it has also the pump function. On the other hand, the vessels also have an active function accommodating the wall through dilatation, hypertrophy, and constriction, in order to distribute, in a better way, the blood according to the necessity of the organs. The concomitant study of the remodeling processes of heart and vessels submitted to the same injuries: pressure overload, volume overload, inflammation, may bring important complementary information. Heart failure continues to be a major cause of death and disability. There is now widespread recognition that myocardial remodeling is a basic element in the development of heart failure, in most of the patients. Basic scientists and clinicians have developed efforts in order to understand the remodeling process in a better way; however, wide gaps in this knowledge remain. One of them is the determination of the structural basis of heart failure. The lack of more conclusive data may be explained by the fact that the papers focus on one factor and the real mechanism is probably related with many interrelated factors.In this project we tried to analyze different factors in subprojects which results will be analyzed integrally. In this same way, we will study groups of dilated hearts from different etiologies. The main aspect to be studied are alterations in: Cardiac fiber, extracellular matrix, microcirculation and autonomic nervous system. A special emphasis will be given to 3D structural analysis at the confocal laser microscopy and electron microscopy. Differently from the heart, the response of the vessel to pressure or volume overload occurs with intimal thickness and muscular hypertrophy. The vascular remodeling has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several pathologic processes at the vessels like the development of atherosclerosis, post angioplastyre-stenosis, dilatation and dissection of the aortic artery wall, intimal thickness with development of hypertension due to pulmonary hyperflow. In this project, we are analyzing different aspects of the vascular remodeling using similar techniques employed in the sub-projects described previously. The viability of this project was possible because pathologists and clinicians from different institutes are participating; they are specialists on different aspects of the cardiovascular remodeling and the development of works in group will certainly give an impulse for the understanding of the heart and vascular failure pathogenesis. (AU)

Scientific publications

(6)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

LUCAS JOSÉ TACHOTTI PIRES; PAULO SAMPAIO GUTIERREZ. Quantificação morfométrica de Chlamydia pneumoniae e Mycoplasma pneumoniae em aneurismas de aorta abdominal humana. Revista Brasileira de Cirurgia Cardiovascular, v. 22, n. 3, p. 322-331, 2007-09-00. (99/00322-9)

DE LOURDES HIGUCHI‚ M.; BENVENUTI‚ L.A.; REIS‚ M.M.; METZGER‚ M.. Pathophysiology of the heart in Chagas’ disease: current status and new developments. Cardiovascular Research, v. 60, n. 1, p. 96-107, 2003. (99/00322-9)

MARIA DE LOURDES HIGUCHI; MARILIA HARUMI HIGUCHI-DOS-SANTOS; HUMBERTO PIERRI; SUELI PALOMINO; NADIA VIEIRA SAMBIASE; JOSÉ ANTONIO FRANCHINI RAMIRES; MAURÍCIO WAJNGARTEN. Mycoplasma pneumoniae e Chlamydia pneumoniae nos focos de calcificação de valva aórtica estenótica. Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo, v. 44, n. 4, p. 209-212, 2002-07-00. (99/00322-9)

NOVAK‚ E.M.; METZGER‚ M.; CHAMMAS‚ R.; DA COSTA‚ M.; DANTAS‚ K.; MANABE‚ C.; PIRES‚ J.; DE OLIVEIRA‚ AC; BYDLOWSKI‚ SP. Downregulation of TNF-α and VEGF expression by Sp1 decoy oligodeoxynucleotides in mouse melanoma tumor. Gene Therapy, v. 10, n. 23, p. 1992-1997, 2003. (99/00322-9, 98/14247-6)

AIELLO‚ V.D.; GUTIERREZ‚ P.S.; CHAVES‚ M.J.F.; LOPES‚ A.A.B.; HIGUCHI‚ M.L.; RAMIRES‚ J.A.F.. Morphology of the internal elastic lamina in arteries from pulmonary hypertensive patients: A confocal laser microscopy study. MODERN PATHOLOGY, v. 16, n. 5, p. 411-416, 2003. (99/00322-9)

SAMBIASE, NADIA VIEIRA; HIGUCHI, MARIA LOURDES; BENVENUTI, LUIZ ALBERTO. Narrowed lumen of the right coronary artery in chronic chagasic patients is associated with ischemic lesions of segmental thinnings of ventricles. INVESTIGACION CLINICA, v. 51, n. 4, p. 531-539, DEC 2010. (99/00322-9)