{"id":1730821,"date":"2025-06-17T11:15:57","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T15:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/faculty-listing\/hck4p\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T15:16:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T19:16:36","slug":"hck4p","status":"publish","type":"faculty-listing","link":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/faculty-listing\/hck4p\/","title":{"rendered":"Kutchai, Howard C."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SERCA2a  [the Ca-ATPase of sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) of cardiac muscle] plays a central  role in intracellular calcium dynamics and thus in the contractility of the  heart. The SR regulates the movement of calcium during both contraction and relaxation  of the heart.\u00a0 The action potential leads  to the opening of voltage-gated L-type calcium channels in the plasma membrane,  allowing the entry of a small amount of calcium, which then triggers the  release of a much larger amount of calcium from the SR and subsequent  contraction.\u00a0 During relaxation, calcium  is pumped back into the SR by SERCA2a and extruded to the extracellular fluid  by the plasma membrane Na<sup>+<\/sup>\/Ca<sup>2+<\/sup> exchanger. If more Ca<sup>2+<\/sup>  is taken up into SR during diastole, more can be released in the next systole,  so that the force and speed of contraction are expected to increase.\u00a0 Stimulation of SERCA2a should also increase  the rate of decrease of ventricular pressure in diastole.\u00a0 A good deal of previous research supports the  interpretation that decreased activity of SERCA2a may be involved in heart  failure and that interventions that increase the activity of SERCA2a have  beneficial effects in heart failure.\u00a0 Decreased  SERCA2a activity has been implicated in the abnormal Ca<sup>2+<\/sup> homeostasis  in animal models of heart failure and in failing human hearts.\u00a0 Mice whose levels of SERCA2a has been  increased by gene transfer are protected against some of the consequences of  experimental heart attack.<\/p>\n<p>We are studying the effects of novel  synthetic compounds that significantly increase the activity of SERCA2a.\u00a0 We will characterize the effects of these  compounds on contractility in hearts of normal mice and in mice subjected to  experimental myocardial infarction and determine whether the compounds can ameliorate  the rhythm disturbances that occur following heart attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1734371,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"otheraff":[2392],"phd-degree":[],"primary":[2335],"research-discipline":[2512,2509],"research-opportunity":[2563],"training-grant":[],"class_list":["post-1730821","faculty-listing","type-faculty-listing","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","otheraff-cardiovascular-research-center","primary-molecular-physiology-and-biological-physics","research-discipline-cardiovascular-biology","research-discipline-physiology","research-opportunity-ro-cardiovasculardisease"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kutchai, Howard C. - Research Faculty Directory<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/faculty-listing\/hck4p\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kutchai, Howard C. - Research Faculty Directory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SERCA2a [the Ca-ATPase of sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) of cardiac muscle] plays a central role in intracellular calcium dynamics and thus in the contractility of the heart. The SR regulates the movement of calcium during both contraction and relaxation of the heart.\u00a0 The action potential leads to the opening of voltage-gated L-type calcium channels in the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/faculty-listing\/hck4p\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Research Faculty Directory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-25T19:16:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2025\/06\/hck4p.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"121\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/faculty-listing\/hck4p\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/faculty-listing\/hck4p\/\",\"name\":\"Kutchai, Howard C. - Research Faculty Directory\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/faculty-listing\/hck4p\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/faculty-listing\/hck4p\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2025\/06\/hck4p.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-17T15:15:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-25T19:16:36+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/faculty-listing\/hck4p\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/faculty-listing\/hck4p\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/faculty-listing\/hck4p\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2025\/06\/hck4p.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2025\/06\/hck4p.jpeg\",\"width\":100,\"height\":121,\"caption\":\"Howard C. 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