News

Owens Lab article, Discovery Reveals Potential Way to Prevent Heart Attacks, Strokes

Scientists at the School of Medicine have identified a potential way to head off heart attacks and strokes by strengthening the fibrous caps overlying atherosclerotic plaques that naturally accumulate inside our arteries. These fatty lesions can rupture, triggering blood clots that cause disability or death.

New research from the lab of UVA`s Gary K. Owens, PhD, reveals surprising new information about the makeup of the protective caps our bodies build over these lesions, and about the factors that determine their stability. This study supports recent findings that certain types of inflammation might actually help stabilize plaques. Doctors may one day be able to use these insights to strengthen the caps and prevent the plaques from rupturing.

The link below goes to the full article at https://newsroom.uvahealth.com

Yan Lab article, Exercise during pregnancy can prevent noncommunicable diseases in offspring

New research out of the University of Virginia suggests that exercise during pregnancy may significantly reduce expectant mothers` children`s chances of developing diabetes and other metabolic diseases later in life.

Zhen Yan said this research was inspired by the vast prevalence of noncommunicable diseases - such as cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases, depression and Alzheimer`s - that have a fetal origin and are passed from mother to child during pregnancy.

The link below goes to the full article at https://www.dailyprogress.com

Dr. Zhen Yan leads study for new paper to JAP, "Exercise during pregnancy mitigates negative effects of parental obesity on metabolic function in adult mouse offspring"

Dr. Zhen Yan and his colleagues have a new paper for the Journal of Applied Physiology, "Exercise during pregnancy mitigates negative effects of parental obesity on metabolic function in adult mouse offspring."

Obesity during pregnancy increases the risk that the children of obese parents will have metabolic disorders, such as diabetes, later in life. Exercising during pregnancy has been shown to improve pregnancy outcomes, leading to a healthy birth. However, less is known about whether physical activity during gestation can improve metabolic health and reduce the risk of negative changes in the next generation`s gene expression due to its parents` health or lifestyle.

Researchers performed two parallel arms of a study in which they examined the effects of maternal and paternal obesity on the offspring`s metabolic health and gene expression in skeletal muscle. Adult mice were fed either a high-fat diet to induce obesity or normal rodent chow for six weeks before mating. Some of the mothers (dams) had access to an exercise wheel during pregnancy and others did not.

The link below goes to the full article at https://www.physiology.org

New article from Wolf lab published in Circulation Research, Loss of Endogenously Cycling Adult Cardiomyocytes Worsens Myocardial Function

Wolf lab has a new article published in Circulation Research titled, Loss of Endogenously Cycling Adult Cardiomyocytes Worsens Myocardial Function. Congratulations on the new publication!

The link below goes to https://www.ahajournals.org and the full article.

Dr. Matthew Wolf was named a 2020 Paul Dudley White International Scholar - Congratulations!!

Dr. Matthew Wolf was named a 2020 Paul Dudley White International Scholar for having the highest rated U.S. abstract for the 2020 AHA Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Scientific Sessions. The abstract title is: A Transgenic Approach Using Dual Orthologous DNA Recombinases To Quantify Subpopulations Of Cycling Cardiomyocytes In Vivo.