The ability to modify the intracellular concentrations of divalent calcium ions is vital to normal cell functioning. In the cells of the cardiac muscle, calcium ions play a crucial role in coupling ...

Most muscles in our bodies only act in response to incoming nerve signals, which have to trigger each individual muscle cell to contract or relax. But heart muscle is different. The impulses that ...

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a previously unrecognized small protein in cells of the human heart that plays a key role in heart muscle contraction. The protein is made ...

Exposure to oil can cause severe cardiovascular effects in fish. Experiments provide direct evidence of how phenanthrene, an oil pollutant found in water, air and soil, causes irregular heartbeat and ...

No one can live without a heart pumping blood to the rest of the body. New research from the University of Missouri School of Medicine reveals more information about this vital function and how it’s ...

video: Scientists in Jianmin Cui's lab at Washington University in St. Louis study ion channels important in heart contraction and neural activity. Many experiments involve mutating the DNA that codes ...

The results of a study demonstrating how circadian rhythms in heart cells are involved in changing heart function over the course of the day could help to explain why shift workers are more vulnerable ...