Project Details
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Understanding the role of cell-cell interactions in cardiac arrhythmogenesis

Subject Area Cardiac and Vascular Surgery
Term from 2021 to 2024
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 499104113
 
Final Report Year 2024

Final Report Abstract

The project aimed to investigate the cell-cell interactions between cardiac immune cells, especially macrophages, and cardiomyocytes in order to better understand the mechanisms behind myocardial remodelling, cardiomyocyte transplantation, and cardiac arrhythmogenesis. We planned to investigate the molecular and electrophysiological interactions of cardiac macrophages with adult cardiomyocytes from the healthy and ischemic heart. However, technical challenges prevented us from obtaining a sufficient number of CCR2+ and CCR2- macrophages for co-culture experiments. Hence, we tested our hypothesis that significantly different interactions between the transplanted cardiomyocytes and the cardiac macrophages could lead to varied functional outcomes in the in-vivo setting. We were able to demonstrate that the improved functional outcome following cardiomyocyte transplantation is dependent on a specific CCR2 macrophage response 1. Additionally, we developed an in-vitro system using isolated neonatal murine cardiomyocytes to investigate the effects of different drugs on cell-cell conduction and drug response using microelectrode arrays.

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