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The cardiovascular or circulatory system is responsible for delivering oxygen and distributing nutrients to virtually all the cells in one's body and for the removal of carbon dioxide and other waste material. Smooth muscle is essential to the control of these functions. Smooth muscle cells regulate the movement of fluids and gases within the body, determining how much blood (or air in the case of lungs) flows to the brain, hands, feet and elsewhere. At the same time, the cardiac muscle pumps blood through the body.
Our scientists have a long tradition of seeking to understand the underlying reasons for loss of function in smooth muscle as it relates to the cardiovascular system. Once these mechanisms are more clearly discerned, our researchers can move toward innovative interventions to treat or prevent the harmful effects of smooth muscle cells that have gone awry in diseases of the lung like asthma and emphysema.
Further identifying proteins that help develop and destroy cardiac muscle cells is a central mission of the Cardiovascular program. Our goal is to have a better understanding of the many cardiac diseases that ultimately lead to heart failure such as heart attacks, cardiac hypertrophy, and hypertension, by examining the roles specific molecules have in normal and abnormal heart activity. This understanding will lead to improved treatments.
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