( proteins in the swine with established...)Reversing 'hibernating' heart muscle focus of UB researchers

"These protein studies will be coupled with assays of mitochondrial respiration and of the activity of specific enzymes in the swine model," said Canty.

"This work relies on the state-of-the art proteomic research facilities and mass spectrometry at UB.

"By using therapies similar to those that are used clinically in patients, such as angioplasty and adenoviral gene transfer to over-express growth factors in the heart, we can identify how changes in the molecular pathways responsible for the adaptation to decreased blood flow can be reversed more completely. The ultimate goal of manipulating these pathways will be to restore full contractile function."

Areas of hibernating myocardium are common in patients with heart failure arising from coronary artery disease, Canty noted. "Determining how this impacts prognosis is the focus of the UB Cardiovascular Center's PAREPET (Prediction of Arrhythmic Events with Positron Emission Tomography) clinical trial, which also is funded by NHLBI.

"Identifying the basic mechanisms responsible for incomplete functional recovery after revascularization hopefully will lead to new therapies that will improve the outlook and symptoms of these patients who are at high risk for adverse cardiovascular events," said Canty.

Additional investigators on the study are Alan D. Hutson, Ph.D., professor and chair of the UB Department of Biostatistics; Te-Chung Lee, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry; Jun Qu, Ph.D., research assistant professor of pharmaceutics, and Michael D. Banas, M.D., research assistant professor of medicine.

Kenneth Blumenthal, Ph.D., professor and chair of the UB Department of Biochemistry, and Robert Straubinger, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmaceutics, will serve as study consultants.