Profiting from a tight collaboration with the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL), the Institut National de Chirurgie Cardiaque et de Cardiologie Interventionnelle (INCCI), the laboratory of Cardiovascular Research is pursuing its research activities aiming at understanding the mechanisms responsible for the development of heart failure. Keeping in mind the importance of the discovery of new therapeutic and prognostic targets, the activities of the group tackle the fields of translational medicine and systems biology of the disease.
PRESENTATION
The laboratory of Cardiovascular Research was created at the end of 2003. At the beginning of 2010, the group accounts 23 members: a director, an associate director, 4 research scientists, 2 post-docs, 3 engineers, 5 PhD students, 4 technicians, 2 research nurses and an administrative assistant. Originally entirely located in the basement of the “Maternité Grande-Duchesse Charlotte” - the former offices of the administrative staff of the CRP-Santé, the laboratory has now working and office spaces on three floors of the maternity.
The laboratory focuses on therapeutic and prognostic aspects of the development of heart failure following myocardial infarction.
It has demonstrated in 2006 that adenosine inhibits the production of matrix metalloproteinase-9 by neutrophils, the first wave of inflammatory cells recruited to the heart after myocardial infarction.
In 2007, the laboratory has shown that, in opposition to their results obtained in neutrophils, adenosine reliably enhances matrix metalloproteinase-9 production by macrophages.
In 2009, the group has characterized some pro-angiogenic effects of adenosine, notably through up-regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor in human macrophages and murine cardiac cells.
In the past few years, the laboratory performed pilot studies aiming at associating genetic variations of the matrix metalloproteinase-9 gene with the occurrence of heart failure post myocardial infarction.
Through the “running mice project”, the laboratory also tests the hypothesis that the interplay between adenosine and MMP-9 is involved in the protection from heart failure provided by physical activity.