HER2 Support Group Forums - Wine effect

By MedPage Today Staff
Published: April 29, 2011

The saga of red wine and heart disease has taken a surprising new turn, and a new study suggests that parts of a rat's brain may take short naps even when the animal is awake -- highlights of this week's edition of Lab Notes.

Bring Me a Stent of Your Best Bordeaux, Please

Modest intake of red wine is good for preventing heart disease. But for those with already diseased coronary arteries, a red wine-eluting stent might do the trick.

In a study reported at the American Heart Association's Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology conference, industry and academic researchers described how they combined red wine polyphenols resveratrol and quercetin into a coating for drug-eluting stents.

When tested on rats, the plastered stent appeared to dose-dependently block restenosis and local inflammation in the month after stenting compared with a bare metal stent.

Equally as impressive, the red wine compounds accelerated endothelial growth by 31% at 10 days post implant.

James J. Kleinedler of Louisiana State University presented the study.

-- C.P and C.K.