On Thursday 22.05 in the CN lecture hall we will host Doc. RNDr. Jitka Žurmanová, Ph.D.. Her lecture will be entitled: "What can we learn from cardioprotective interventions? Walking in the mountains”. The lecture will take place at 3 p.m. in the CN lecture hall and it will be followed by a get together.

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease remains one of the world's leading causes of death. Adequate stress at the level of the whole organism naturally activates signaling pathways that increase the resistance of not only the heart but also other tissues to ischemic injury. The degree of the induced beneficial effect depends on the type and intensity of the stimulus, but also on the mode chosen. Excessive or inappropriate stimulation, on the other hand, has a detrimental effect. Adaptation to hypoxia, physical training, caloric restriction and, more recently, cold acclimation have been recognized as cardioprotective in terms of reducing infarct size. The study of these interventions shows us how the cells themselves are able to increase their resistance to ischemia and reduce the extent of fibrotic scarring. The knowledge gained is useful either for prevention or for identifying protective pathways that provide us with potential therapeutic targets. The former mentioned interventions are relatively well studied and the latter, the cardioprotective effects of mild cold exposure or cold stimulation, are being studied intensively. This presentation will focus on a comparison of the major mechanisms of cardioprotection understood to date, with emphasis on the role of mitochondria, oxidative stress, inflammation and specific signaling pathways of particular intervention. We usually study individual interventions in isolation and rarely realize that we are naturally exposed to all these stimuli - hypoxia, physical stress, caloric restriction and cold environment - during a vigorous walk at high altitude.