Background: Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a common condition associated with significant mortality due to pulmonary embolism. Despite advanced prevention and anticoagulation therapy, the incidence of venous thromboembolism remains unchanged. Individuals with elevated hematocrit and/or excessively high erythropoietin (EPO) serum levels are particularly susceptible to DVT formation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction And Objectives: Wound healing after myocardial infarction (MI) is a dynamic and complex multiple phase process, and a coordinated cellular response is required for proper scar formation. The current paradigm suggests that pro-inflammatory monocytes infiltrate the MI zone during the initial pro-inflammatory phase and differentiate into inflammatory macrophages, and then switch their phenotypes to anti-inflammatory during the reparative phase. Visualization of the reparative phase post-MI is of great interest because it may reveal delayed resolution of inflammation, which in turn predicts adverse cardiac remodeling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInsulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are mediators of growth hormone-induced metabolic and anabolic actions, but also regulate cell growth, differentiation, and apoptosis and show beneficial effects in acute myocardial ischemia. Since endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) improve myocardial function after acute myocardial infarction, we sought to investigate whether overexpression of IGF-2 in expanded EPCs (eEPCs) further contributes to improvement in left ventricular function after myocardial infarction. EPCs were isolated from human cord blood and transduced by a retroviral vector expression of IGF-2 (IGF-2 eEPCs) or vector only.
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