Understanding how an old heart gets stiff. Aging is accompanied by a stiffening of the heart and reduced function, which is accelerated by cardiovascular disease and leads to heart failure. How the heart stiffens is poorly understood. A new mechanism is proposed here, involving structural membrane proteins (termed caveolae and cavins) and a signalling molecule (nitric oxide). The current research aims to unravel the interplay between cardiac cells and these proteins/signals to cause stiffness an ....Understanding how an old heart gets stiff. Aging is accompanied by a stiffening of the heart and reduced function, which is accelerated by cardiovascular disease and leads to heart failure. How the heart stiffens is poorly understood. A new mechanism is proposed here, involving structural membrane proteins (termed caveolae and cavins) and a signalling molecule (nitric oxide). The current research aims to unravel the interplay between cardiac cells and these proteins/signals to cause stiffness and to determine whether this process governs normal aging of the heart. This work will advance understanding of how heart function is determined and reveal how the human heart changes with normal aging. Read moreRead less
Unravelling the sub-nuclear complexity of the brain. Understanding the function of the brain is a major frontier of scientific research. The ability to increase knowledge of brain function is reliant upon the development of novel methods. This application will develop a novel approach for understanding the function of particular nerve cells. One outcome will be demonstration of the applicability of a novel method of benefit to all brain researchers. Another outcome will be increased understandin ....Unravelling the sub-nuclear complexity of the brain. Understanding the function of the brain is a major frontier of scientific research. The ability to increase knowledge of brain function is reliant upon the development of novel methods. This application will develop a novel approach for understanding the function of particular nerve cells. One outcome will be demonstration of the applicability of a novel method of benefit to all brain researchers. Another outcome will be increased understanding of one brain region that is known to contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease. It is expected that increased knowledge of brain function will lead to novel theories of brain disease and therapeutic strategies.Read moreRead less
An Implementation Trial Of A Telephone-based Care Management Program For Patients Following Myocardial Infarction
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$641,656.00
Summary
We are trialling the implementation of an innovative telephone-delivered program for managing people who have had a heart attack. Cardiac rehabilitation programs are generally based in hospitals in Australia and people have to be able to attend the programs when they are offered. Even though such programs have been shown to be very effective in improving outcomes after a heart attack, at least 85% of Australians after a heart attack are either unable to access and-or unable to attend such progra ....We are trialling the implementation of an innovative telephone-delivered program for managing people who have had a heart attack. Cardiac rehabilitation programs are generally based in hospitals in Australia and people have to be able to attend the programs when they are offered. Even though such programs have been shown to be very effective in improving outcomes after a heart attack, at least 85% of Australians after a heart attack are either unable to access and-or unable to attend such programs due to transport and many other barriers. So, there is an urgent need to identify new, effective, and affordable ways of delivering cardiac rehabilitation programs to people after a heart attack. The proposed telephone-delivered program will be particularly appropriate for disadvantaged people, such as those living in rural and remote areas as well as Indigenous Australians, who do not currently have access to hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation programs. People who have had a heart attack will be recruited from three of Brisbane's largest public teaching hospitals, and will then be randomly assigned to the telephone-delivered cardiac rehabilitation program (Care Management Intervention group) or to a control or Usual Care group. The Care Management Intervention group will receive regular telephone calls from a highly qualified 'Care Manager' based at the renowned National Heart Foundation of Australia telephone support service, 'Heartline'. The Care Manager will help people to manage their heart condition and prevent the reoccurrence of further heart problems. People will also be encouraged to make necessary lifestyle and behavioural changes with the assistance of the Care Manager and some Heart Foundation educational and interactive resources to record their progress. We expect that the program or Care Management Intervention group will have better health outcomes than the control or Usual Care group at 6 and 12 months follow up.Read moreRead less
Physiological Thermoregulation and Cardiovascular Function in Reptiles. This project will be important in advancing the concept of physiological thermoregulation in reptiles from a descriptive to a mechanistic basis, thereby providing a better conceptual framework within which the evolutionary processes and selection pressures acting on modern animals and their ancestors can be evaluated.
Benefits of conducting this research will include:
maintaining the high international profile of Aust ....Physiological Thermoregulation and Cardiovascular Function in Reptiles. This project will be important in advancing the concept of physiological thermoregulation in reptiles from a descriptive to a mechanistic basis, thereby providing a better conceptual framework within which the evolutionary processes and selection pressures acting on modern animals and their ancestors can be evaluated.
Benefits of conducting this research will include:
maintaining the high international profile of Australian comparative physiology;
the training of post-graduate students, both Honours and Ph.D.s;
stimulating collaboration between two of Australia's research intensive universities (Sydney and Queensland);
and show-casing Australia's impressive reptilian fauna.
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Muscle fibre excitability and calcium regulation in skeletal muscle of amphibians and mammals. The fundamental role of skeletal muscle is posture and movement. Essential for this is a specialised cell structure and a complex regulation of function. This project will define key aspects of muscle structure and functional regulation crucial to developing targets for improving function under stressed states such as fatigue, disease and age.
Characterisation of bone and bone marrow resident tissue macrophages. This project aims to elucidate the identities of tissue macrophages involved in bone and blood system (bone marrow) homeostasis and function, and the molecular signatures underpinning their functional specialisation. It will then investigate whether decline in the function of these specialised macrophages occurs during skeletal and blood system ageing. Both skeletal and blood system decline contribute to age-associated loss of ....Characterisation of bone and bone marrow resident tissue macrophages. This project aims to elucidate the identities of tissue macrophages involved in bone and blood system (bone marrow) homeostasis and function, and the molecular signatures underpinning their functional specialisation. It will then investigate whether decline in the function of these specialised macrophages occurs during skeletal and blood system ageing. Both skeletal and blood system decline contribute to age-associated loss of productivity, and paralleled decline in the resident macrophages in these organs may be a common ageing mechanism. Demonstration that altered macrophage biology unpins decline in blood and bone may prolong peak health and increase productivity in the ageing population.Read moreRead less
Sarcoplasmic reticulum-mitochondrial functional interactions in muscle. Muscle in the body of animals and human has the ability to adapt to stress placed on it, to improve performance. This allows new physical tasks that have been unfamiliar to become easier. One form of stress on the muscle is the demand to work longer without fatigue. This can be important for animal survival or athletes training for sport. A single session of intense muscle contractions can lead to the muscle increasing its c ....Sarcoplasmic reticulum-mitochondrial functional interactions in muscle. Muscle in the body of animals and human has the ability to adapt to stress placed on it, to improve performance. This allows new physical tasks that have been unfamiliar to become easier. One form of stress on the muscle is the demand to work longer without fatigue. This can be important for animal survival or athletes training for sport. A single session of intense muscle contractions can lead to the muscle increasing its capacity for endurance within 24 hrs. This project aims to examine this phenomenon in animals and human to decipher the mechanism involved in the beneficial muscle changes experienced in such a brief time. It will provide benefits such as the potential to manipulate human muscle condition and animal muscle (meat) quality.Read moreRead less
Physiological activation and targets of calcium signaling in muscle. The skeletal muscle fibre is a highly specialised cell for the rapid delivery of calcium to elicit contraction, required for posture, movement and thus one's independence. Calcium is also a signal for other purposes, such as triggering other processes within the muscle for its own maintenance. These calcium signals are poorly understood. This project aims to determine when the calcium signals are turned on during normal muscle ....Physiological activation and targets of calcium signaling in muscle. The skeletal muscle fibre is a highly specialised cell for the rapid delivery of calcium to elicit contraction, required for posture, movement and thus one's independence. Calcium is also a signal for other purposes, such as triggering other processes within the muscle for its own maintenance. These calcium signals are poorly understood. This project aims to determine when the calcium signals are turned on during normal muscle activity and what the end result of the signals is for the muscle.Read moreRead less
Signalling cross-talk through Suppressors Of Cytokine Signalling (SOCS) initiates luteolysis in the ovary. Members of the newly discovered SOCS protein family block cytokine signal transduction pathways, including those for prolactin and GH. We have discovered that one of these proteins, SOCS-3, is upregulated in the corpus luteum of the ovary by prostaglandins and propose that induction of prolactin or GH resistance is a hitherto unrecognised and critical step in luteolysis. We have also disco ....Signalling cross-talk through Suppressors Of Cytokine Signalling (SOCS) initiates luteolysis in the ovary. Members of the newly discovered SOCS protein family block cytokine signal transduction pathways, including those for prolactin and GH. We have discovered that one of these proteins, SOCS-3, is upregulated in the corpus luteum of the ovary by prostaglandins and propose that induction of prolactin or GH resistance is a hitherto unrecognised and critical step in luteolysis. We have also discovered that this cross-talk between prostaglandin- and cytokine-receptor signalling pathways occurs in preadipocyte and breast cell lines and propose that this research will serve as a paradigm for understanding how sensitivity to cytokines can be controlled at a molecular level.Read moreRead less
Calcium regulation in the skeletal muscle triad and along the fibre. The fundamental role of skeletal muscle is posture and movement. Alterations in the normal way calcium regulates skeletal muscle function in fatigue, age and disease states causes loss of normal function. Preventing or controlling these changes is a key therapeutic aim. However, we currently lack full understanding of key mechanisms of calcium regulation in healthy skeletal muscle. This project will define key aspects of cal ....Calcium regulation in the skeletal muscle triad and along the fibre. The fundamental role of skeletal muscle is posture and movement. Alterations in the normal way calcium regulates skeletal muscle function in fatigue, age and disease states causes loss of normal function. Preventing or controlling these changes is a key therapeutic aim. However, we currently lack full understanding of key mechanisms of calcium regulation in healthy skeletal muscle. This project will define key aspects of calcium regulation that could be crucial to developing targets for improving function of skeletal muscle under stressed states.Read moreRead less