Coronary artery disease is the most common form of heart disease, affecting over one million people in the UK. This occurs when atherosclerotic lesions (plaque) obstruct the flow of blood though the coronary vessels that supply the heart. Narrowing or blockage of these vessels leads to a reduction in oxygen supply to the heart (myocardial ischemia), which can result in angina, a heart attack (myocardial infarction), sudden cardiac death and\/or heart failure. If the blood supply is not restored rapidly to the ischaemic region of the heart, myocardial infarction can result in terminal loss of cardiomyocytes, leading to myocardial damage. Poor repair of this damage, particularly to the left ventricle, is a leading cause of heart failure. Heart failure has a serious impact on our society and once diagnosed has a 5 year survival rate worse than most cancers, with 40% of patients dying within a year.<\/p>\n
ICMR research covers a variety of areas that aim to understand the development of cardiac disease, such as cardiac myocyte growth and signalling, Myocyte mechanosensing, and Atherosclerosis.<\/p>\n
Within the ICMR we aim to better understanding of the molecular mechanisms that limit cardiac repair following injury, the mechanisms of myocardial adaptation and cardiac hypertrophy in response to mechanical stress, the role of protein kinases in cardiac myocyte signalling, the role of lipoproteins in atherosclerosis, and how endothelial cells, which line inside of blood vessels, communicate and modulate vascular function.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"