The Laboratory of Experimental Cardiology focus on three main topics: 

Cardiac remodelling

Cardiac remodelling is characterized by hypertrophy, fibrosis, inflammation and cell death, but little is known on the precise mechanisms that converts cardiac stress such as increased afterload to the the remodelling response. We therefore combine a variety of approaches to identify the upstream molecular mechanisms and cell types that are responsible for driving the cardiac remodelling response in especially aortic stenosis to identify next generation treatments for this disease. Main outputs:

Ventricular arrhythmias

Traditional anti-arrhythmic therapies such as betablockers are associated with low efficiacy and unwanted side effects. We have focused especially on hypokalemia induced arrhythmias, and found that these most likely are induced primarily low activity of the Na+/K+-ATPase (NKA). We thus study molecular regulation of the NKA, especially by local cAMP-levels and phosphodiesterase activity. Main outputs:

Preclinical models

Preclinical models in heart failure research are associated with high variability that most likely hinders therapeutic development. We thus focus on method development to improve the translational value of standard preclincial models in heart failure research.