Heart failure research

Heart failure is a condition where the heart is unable to pump blood around the body as efficiently as it should. This often happens as a consequence of a heart attack but can also be caused by other things such as high blood pressure. Researchers in the School of Biological Sciences are studying heart failure. Cells from the heart can be grown in the lab and used to study what goes wrong in heart failure. In the video below these heart cells growing in the lab are even capable of beating - just like they do in the heart! Researchers can also stretch these cells to mimic the effects of exercise or the effects of heart failure. They have found that a protein called LPP may play an important role in how heart cells respond to mechanical stress and how this may then lead to heart failure. You can read more about this work here:

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