Postnatal and Adult Aortic Heart Valves Have Distinctive Transcriptional Profiles Associated With Valve Tissue Growth and Maintenance Respectively.

ABSTRACT: Heart valves are organized connective tissues of high mechanical demand. They open and close over 100,000 times a day to preserve unidirectional blood flow by maintaining structure-function relationships throughout life. In affected individuals, structural failure compromises function and often leads to regurgitant blood flow and progressive heart failure. This is most common in degenerative valve disease due to age-related wear and tear, or congenital malformations. At present, the only effective treatment of valve disease is surgical repair or replacement and this is often impermanent and requires anti-coagulation therapy throughout life. Therefore, there is a critical need to discover new alternatives. A promising therapeutic area is tissue regeneration and in non-valvular tissues this

SUBMITTER: Nordquist E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5928323 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature