Rios, Cassandra
(2022)
Investigating the Role of Cardiac Fibroblasts in Perinatal Development.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Preterm birth is the leading cause of death in children under the age of five. While medical treatments have greatly improved their survival its root cause remains unknown. This is important as preterm babies are often born with heart defects that weaken its function and are at risk for heart disease. To date, much of what is done to relieve these symptoms focuses on maturing the heart. Maturation is the last phase of heart development. During maturation heart muscle cells grow larger in size and lose their ability to multiply in number. Other events include changes in metabolism to keep up with the growing heart. These processes occur just before and immediately after birth (perinatal) and are critical to prepare the heart for lifelong function. This proposal aims to identify factors that control perinatal heart development. Based on our single cell sequencing data on murine hearts we identified the genes, Klf2, 4, and 9, that are expressed in fibroblasts for further investigation. Klf expression parallels the rise of glucocorticoids naturally occurring near term to mature heart development. Additionally, these Klf expressions peak when the animal transitions from intrauterine life or a state of normal hypoxia (lower oxygen tension in the fetus as compared to the adult) to normoxia. This information led us to hypothesize that oxygenation and glucocorticoids act on the proposed KLFs to regulate perinatal cardiac development.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
31 August 2022 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
2022 |
| Approval Date: |
31 August 2022 |
| Submission Date: |
7 April 2022 |
| Access Restriction: |
2 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 2 years. |
| Number of Pages: |
54 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Medicine > Integrative Systems Biology |
| Degree: |
MS - Master of Science |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Heart, Mouse, Development, Perinatal, Fibroblasts, Dexamethasone, Adeno-associated virus |
| Date Deposited: |
31 Aug 2022 17:41 |
| Last Modified: |
31 Aug 2022 17:41 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/42547 |
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