According to MedicalXpress, American researchers from the University of California at Berkeley to better understand the mechanism of such diseases as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This disease affects about one person in five hundred, it is often the cause of sudden cardiac arrest during sports activities.
The researchers used a laser to 3D printing and created a movable microscopic model of the heart. In this model, was present the cells with a genetic defect similar to that observed in patients with cardiomyopathy. Watching the artificial heart, scientists were able to confirm that under stress the healthy cells of miokarda quickly adapted to it, while defective cells were not able to adapt correctly to decrease, causing cardiac arrhythmias.
A similar failure of cell functions, according to scientists, occurs in conditions where physical activity increases the workload on the heart, causing arrhythmia as a result. Normal cardiac muscle cells are able to cope with the stress without consequences, but if the cells contain a defective gene, the increased load may lead to mismatch in the reduction in different parts of the heart and cause it to stop.
The study’s authors believe that their finding may contribute to the development of more effective treatments for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Earlier Magicforum wrote about the nine unusual signs of diseases of the cardiovascular system.