FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Donna Krupa, APS
(301) 634-7209 (office)
(703) 967-2751 (cell)
dkrupa@the-aps.org
Evidence
Of Nanobacterial-Like Structures Found In Human Calcified
Arteries And Cardiac Valves
Researchers discover evidence that could indicate bacteria-like etiology
of vascular calcification
May 24, 2004 – Bethesda, MD – Researchers at the
Mayo Clinic found they could isolate and culture nanoparticles from filtered
homogenates of diseased calcified human cardiovascular tissue. These
cultured nano-sized particles were recognized by a DNA-specific dye,
incorporated radiolabeled uridine, and after decalcification, appeared via
electron microscopy to contain cell walls.
The research paper, entitled "Evidence of Nanobacterial-like Structures in Human Calcified Arteries and Cardiac
Valves," has been peer-reviewed and is scheduled for publication in the
September 2004 issue of the American Journal of Physiology: Heart and
Circulatory Physiology, published by the American Physiological
Society. It is currently available online from APS as an Articles in PresS
(see below for details).
Noting that the “biological nature of nanometer-sized
particles remains controversial,” the researchers said their current study “provides
anatomical evidence that calcified human arterial and valvular tissue
contain nanometer-sized particles which share characteristics of
nanoparticles recovered from geological specimens, mammalian blood, and
human kidney stones, and observed by transmission electron microscopy in a
calcified human mitral valve.”
Furthermore, they said they designed their study to
systematically replicate earlier work conducted on nanoparticles isolated
from human kidney stone using different, but rigorous techniques. They point
out that what is recovered from diseased calcified tissue replicates in
culture, but that they have not yet been able to identify or label what they
have found as nanobacteria described by a unique DNA sequence.
However, they cite evidence that the cultured particles
contain nucleic acids because compared to controls containing hydroxyapetite
crystals they “incorporated radiolabeled uridine in a time-dependent manner
of three days, providing evidence of ongoing nucleic acid synthesis.”
One interpretation of these results, especially given
such potential parallels as H. pylori causing ulcers, could be that
“objects hypothesized to be a type of bacteria (nanobacteria)” could be
involved in “mechanisms mediating vascular calcification (which) remain
incompletely understood.”
Researchers and Funding
Research was funded in part by grants from the National
Institutes of Health (DK 62021), Mayo Foundation, Ralph C. Wilson Sr. and
Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Medical Research Foundation and Austin Heart Foundation.
About Articles in PresS
To find this and other Articles in PresS (AiPS)
from the 14 Journals published by the American Physiological Society, go to
the APS website
www.the-aps.org, Publications, Journals, ArticlesinPresS. Abstracts are
available free to the public; pdf files of the complete research paper are
available to the media through the APS Communications Office.
For a copy of the abstract referred to in this press
release, go to:
http://ajpheart.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/00075.2004v1
Research accepted for AiPS has been peer-reviewed and
accepted for publication, but papers have not been copy edited or
fact-checked. Acknowledgment in print of APS and its Journals as the source
of this research is appreciated.
For further information or to interview members of
the research team, please contact Donna Krupa, APS Communications Officer,
at (301) 634-7209 (cell: 301.332.4402) or
dkrupa@the-aps.org.
The
American Physiological Society was founded in 1887 to foster basic and
applied science, much of it relating to human health. The Bethesda, MD-based
Society has more than 11,000 members and annually publishes nearly 4,000
articles in its 14 peer-reviewed Journals.
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