Faculty of Medicine Cellullar and Mollecular Medicine

• About CMM
• Staff Contacts
• CMM Mailing Adress
• Administrative Personnel
• Cross-Appointed and Adjunct
• Departmental Support Staff
• Faculty Members
• Postdoctoral Fellows
• Maps and Directions
• Faculty Research Interests
  • CMM Research Interests
  • Neuroscience Interests
• Honours Program
• Graduate Programs
• Division of Clinical and Functional Anatomy
• Seminars
• Links
• Undergraduate Calendar
• Employment Opportunities

Concentrating on normal cardiac growth and aging as well as on various types of cardiac hypertrophy. Several aspects of the topic are investigated using both morphological and physiological methods.

Special interest areas are:

1. Factors influencing proliferation of cardiac myocytes during normal and pathological growth of the heart (hypertrophy versus hyperplasia).
   
   
2. Regulation of coronary capillary growth and evaluation of various angiogenetic factors.
   
   
3. Formation of capillaries is closely related to the mast cells. Formation and degranulation of the mast cells are also investigated.
   
   
4. Coronary microcirculation as investigated by coloured microspheres (in normal, hypoxic and infarcted hearts).
   
   
5. Quantitative morphology of coronary capillary net (oxygen sources) a nd mitochondria (oxygen sinks). The effect of these parameters on myocardial oxygenation (theoretical models).

Selected Publications:

Rakusan K.  Coronary angiogenesis.  JAI Publishers, Stanford, CN 1999.
Book editor + author of 2 chapters:
Coronary angiogenesis - mechanisms, methods and consequences, pp. 1-24.
Vascularization of the heart during normal and pathological growth, pp. 129-154.

Rakusan K.  Microcirculation in the heart during cardiovascular disease.  In:  Microcirculation and Cardiovascular Disease (Ambrosio, G., Struijker-Boudier, H.A.J., eds.)  Lippincott, Williams, Wilkins, 2000, pp. 103-116.

Rakusan K, Ehrenburg IV, Gulyaeva NV, Tkatchouk EN.  The effect of intermittent normobaric hypoxia on vascularization of human myometrium.  Microvasc. Res. 58:200-203, 1999.

Rakusan K, Cicutti N, Maurin A, Guez D, Schiavi P.  The effect of treatment with low dose ACE inhibitor and/or diuretic on coronary microvasculature in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats.  Microvasc. Res. 59:243-254, 2000.

Rakusan K, Cicutti N, Kolar F.  The effect of anemia on cardiac function, microvascular structure and capillary hematocrit in the rats heart.  Am. J. Physiol., 280:H1407-H1414, 2001.

© University of Ottawa

For additional information, consult our list of contacts

Technical questions? medtech@uottawa.ca