Molecular Biology of Valvular Heart Disease

Calcific Aortic Valve Disease: The Role of the Stem Cell Niche.- In vitro Cell Culture Model of Calcification: Molecular Regulation of Myofibroblast Differentiation to an Osteoblast Phenotype.- Aortic Valve Apoptosis, Cell Proliferation and Atherosclerosis in Experimental Hypercholesterolemia.- Experimental Model of Aortic Valve Calcification to Induce Osteoblast Differentiation.- Development of an Experimental Model of Mitral Valve Regurgitation via Hypertrophic Chondrocytes.- Testing Drug Eluting Paclitaxel Balloon Valvuloplasty in an Experimental Model of Aortic Stenosis.- Ex vivo model for Bioprosthetic Valve Calcification via Stem Cell Differentiation.- Experimental Hypercholesterolemia in Genetic ApoE -/- /Lrp5 -/- Mice: Proof of Principle.- Wnt3a-Lrp5 mediated Bicuspid Aortic Valve Disease.- Mouse Models of Calcific Aortic Valve Disease.- Hemodynamic Mechanisms of Bicuspid Aortic Valve Calcification and Aortopathy.- Bioreactor and biomaterial platforms for investigation of mitral valve biomechanics and mechanobiology.- Identification of early pathological events in calcific aortic valve disease by molecular imaging.- Role of ectonucleotidases and purinergic receptors in calcific aortic valve disease.- In vitro model of Drug Testing.- Application of the LDL-Density-Pressure Theory: The Mitral Valve.- Application of The LDL-Density-Radius Theory: The Aortic Valve.

Nalini M. Rajamannan, MD has been studying the cellular biology of valvular heart disease since 1987. She has trained at the Mayo Clinic, in molecular biology, cardiology and echocardiography to develop an expertise which is translational in the approach towards valvular medicine. Her expertise has developed the initial experimental models towards studying medical therapies for this disease process. She is the chair of NHLBI/NIH working group in calcific aortic valve disease. This white paper was published in Circulation in Oct 2011. She has had NIH funding in this field since 2002 and has published 60 papers, several book chapters and the most recent textbook in Cardiac Valvular Medicine. She also has 3 patents in the field of cardiac valve signaling and pathogenesis of this disease.