Wnt/Frizzled signaling in myocardial infarction: characterization and interventions with peptide fragments of Wnt

Myocardial infarction occurs when blood stops flowing to a part of the heart due to an occlusion of a coronary artery. As a result, myocardial cells in this part of the heart die off and are replaced by scar tissue. This process is called the wound healing process. If something goes wrong in this process, the scar tissue will not become strong enough, allowing the scar to stretch continuously. This will cause an increasing deterioration of the cardiac pump function, a process better known as heart failure.
Various mechanisms are involved in this wound healing process, one of which being the Wnt/Frizzled mechanism. This mechanism is thought to have an unfavourable effect on the wound healing process. In this study a substance was therefore used with the ability to inhibit this mechanism. In laboratory animals, this substance had a favourable effect on the wound healing process, thus preventing the development of heart failure. Furthermore, new substances have been developed with the ability to inhibit this mechanism in cell experiments. In the future, these new substances must be further developed in order for them to be made suitable for laboratory animal experiments.