Molecular Biology of Valvular Heart Disease [Hardcover]

The cellular mechanisms of valvular heart disease have not been elucidated until the last decade. To date, there is no medical therapy that is FDA or CE mark approved for the treatment and/or slowing the progression of this disease. This textbook will provide the cellular basis for medical therapy. Over the past decade, research laboratories are more and more evolving into valvular biology programs from the traditional vascular biology. The science between the two disciplines, although has several similarities has unique cellular targets secondary to the embryologic derivation of the heart valve? and the hemodynamics involved in the understanding of this disorders. This textbook will be a natural progression from the recently published text Cardiac Valvular Medicine, Springer 2012. This new textbook will provide the cellular details and the more basic molecular biology approaches towards understanding the disease, providing novel cellular targets and finally developing future clinical trials in the medical treatment of valvular heart disease in the future.

Calcific Aortic Valve Disease: The Role of the Stem Cell Niche.- In vitro Cell Culture Model of Calcification: Molecular Regulation of Myofibroblast Differentiation to an Osteoblast Phenotype.- Aortic Valve Apoptosis, Cell Proliferation and Atherosclerosis in Experimental Hypercholesterolemia.- Experimental Model of Aortic Valve Calcification to Induce Osteoblast Differentiation.- Development of an Experimental Model of Mitral Valve Regurgitation via Hypertrophic Chondrocytes.- Testing Drug Eluting Paclitaxel Balloon Valvuloplasty in an Experimental Model of Aortic Stenosis.- Ex vivo model for Bioprosthetic Valve Calcification via Stem Cell Differentiation.- Experimental Hypercholesterolemia in Genetic ApoE^-/-/Lrp5^-/- Mice: Proof of Principle.- Wnt3a-Lrp5 mediated Bicuspid Aortic Valve Disease.- Mouse Models of Calcific Aortic Valve Disease.- Hemodynamic Mechanl#!