A research team in Göttingen led by MBExC member Dr. Lukas Cyganek, Head of the Stem Cell Unit at the Department of Cardiology and Pneumology at the Göttingen University Medical Center (UMG), has demonstrated that connective tissue cells in the heart – known as cardiac fibroblasts – play a key role in causing disease. In patients, these cells produce increased levels of the signalling molecule interleukin-8, which regulates communication between cells and is normally only activated during inflammatory processes. By specifically blocking this signalling pathway, the damage to heart tissue has now been significantly reduced in human stem cell models. The findings were published in the journal ‘Circulation’.
You can find the press release (in German) here.
