Anatomy & Physiology: Current Research
Open Access

Abstract

Molecular Investigation into the Human Atrioventricular Node in Heart Failure

Halina Dobrzynski, Andrew Atkinson, Zoltan Borbas, Christina M Ambrosi and Igor R Efimov

The atrioventricular node (AVN), the molecular basis has been studied in animal models; however, the human AVN remains poorly explored at the molecular level in heart failure patients. We studied ex vivo donor human hearts rejected for transplantation (n=6) and end-stage failing hearts with cardiomyopathy of various etiologies (n=6). Microdissection and quantitative PCR (qPCR) were used to anatomically map mRNA expression in both failing and non-failing hearts from tissue sections through the AVN, atrial and ventricular muscle. In the failing ventricle significant (P