2017 Cardiovascular Research Day Abstract Book
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46<br />
Sex-Specific Differences in Cardiac Fibrosis<br />
Gregory Milburn 1 • Autumn Conger 1 • Cheavar Blair, PhD 1 • Maya Guglin, MD 2 • Gretchen Wells, MD,<br />
PhD 2 • Rebekah Waikel, PhD 3 • Kenneth Campbell, PhD 1<br />
1Physiology, University of Kentucky • 2 <strong>Cardiovascular</strong> Medicine, University of Kentucky •<br />
3Biological Sciences, Eastern Kentucky University<br />
Undergraduate<br />
<strong>Cardiovascular</strong> disease is the leading causes of death in America, which prompted a concerted effort<br />
to better understand the causes and to develop innovative therapies. The etiology of heart disease<br />
is complex and depends on several factors such as age, race, and sex, but previous research<br />
conducted contains gaps, as it often did not look for difference between these groups. This study<br />
aims to fill one aspect of this research gap by examining sex-specific differences in cardiac fibrosis<br />
in failing and non-failing human hearts. Cardiac fibrosis is a result of cardiac remodeling and causes<br />
decreased heart function post cardiac damage. A previous study, conducted in our lab, used<br />
Nanostring analysis to examine sex-specific differences in the expression of genes related to<br />
fibrosis. The results of this study showed certain gene expressions were specific to sex or had an<br />
interaction between the sex and heart failure status. Several of these genes were regulators of<br />
collagen, a common type of cardiac fibrosis. We continued this study by quantifying collagen in<br />
human heart samples, collected from heart transplants and non-viable organ donors. These<br />
samples were stained using an established picrosirius red staining technique, turning the collagen<br />
tissue red and normal cardiac tissue yellow. These samples were then quantified using a k-means<br />
cluster, via a program written in lab, to eliminate any bias in determining red and yellow tissue. The<br />
results are pending as there are still samples left to be completed. We hope to continue pursuing<br />
this line of inquiry into sex-specific differences in heart disease by examining passive stiffness, of<br />
which collagen is a major component.<br />
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