pacemaker

UCSD team discovers specialized, rare heart stem cells in newborns

...xisting surgical procedures. If the cells maintain pacemaker function when placed in the intact heart, they might serve as biological pacemakers for infants born with heart block, which could also be valuable." After the isl1+ cells were found in newborn rats, the UCSD team used sophisticated genetic methods ...

Discovery clarifies role of peptide in biological clock

...nchronicity was restored, showing that VIP couples pacemaker cells and drives rhythms in slave cells. "VIP between SCN neurons is like a rubber band between the pendulums of two grandfather clocks, helping to synchronize their timing. Some researchers had proposed that knocking out VIP or the receptor for it ...

What Makes The Brain Tick, Tick, Tick: Researchers Gaining New Insights Into Brain's Internal Clock

...where in the brain lurks an independent biological pacemaker that regularly emits neural timing pulses or "ticks." However, more recent research by Meck and his colleagues at Duke, has led to the development of a "striatal beat frequency" model of interval timing involving the "coincidence detection" of oscill...

Cyberkinetics, Case to develop system to help restore extremity function

... the body to restore or improve function. A heart pacemaker is one example of an FES System. Another example of an FES System is one which employs an electrical current to restore movement by initiating muscle contractions in paralyzed extremities. The main components of an FES system are the electrodes, th...

Bare metal stents deliver gene therapy to heart vessels with less inflammation in animal studies

...re artificial joints and orthopedic pins and rods, pacemaker electrodes, and titanium tooth implants. "The results of our study may have broader implications for other diseases in which implantable medical devices may be used to deliver gene therapy," said Dr. Levy. Dr. Levy's co-authors included Ilia Fishbei...

Novel connection found between biological clock and cancer

...ension for the biological clock in addition to its pacemaker functions that play such a sweeping role in the rhythms and activities of life. "The notion that the clock regulates DNA-damage input and that mutation can affect the clock as well as the cell cycle is novel," says Jay Dunlap, professor and chair of...

UC Davis researchers move biotechnology closer to replacing electronic pacemakers

...from the body. "We were even able to create new pacemaker regions on the left atrium," Li said. According ...rmal muscle cells of the heart were converted into pacemaker cells by a process called transdifferentiation. Studies done two weeks after the injections showed t...

New mechanism underlying pain found

... brain, rhythmically similar to those generated by pacemaker cells that regulate one's heart rate. "What we ...at results in an increase in the activity of these pacemaker ion channels and the resulting transmission of pain signals to the brain. We are encouraged by early...

Keeping the body in sync -- The stability of cellular clocks

...e this: the cell receives a signal from the master pacemaker in the hypothalamus, and then these clock genes respond by setting up concentration gradients that change in a periodic manner. The cell “interprets?these gradients and unleashes tissue-specific circadian responses. Some examples of output from these...

Slowing the racing heart

...ulation Research how an enzyme acts on the heart's pacemaker to slow the rapid beating of the heart's "fight-or...cells to beat. In the human heart, one cell -- the pacemaker cell -- beats faster or slower to induce a rhythmic heartbeat that varies to increase or decrease th...