UKE - UCCS - Working Group

Working Group Pecha

Name: Prof. Dr. med. Simon Pecha
Clinic/Institute: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery
Email: s.pecha@uke.de
Phone: +49 (0) 1522 2817627

Research Focus and Main research questions

Our research group has three main areas of interest. First, we focus on cardiac regeneration using human iPS-cell derived cardiomyocytes. We here aim for myocardial replacement in patients suffering from end-stage heart failure, using tissue engineering and intramyocardial cell injection. Another area of interest is Biomarker research in patients with bicuspid aortopathy, valvular cardiomyopathy and in patients with atrial fibrillation. Furthermore, we are conducting cardiac valve engineering and hemodynamic investigations using 3-D printing technologies.

Research Projects:

Cardiac Regeneration
Cardiac repair using iPSC-cell derived engineered heart tissue and iPSC-derived intramyocardial cardiomyocyte injection o Bioluminescence imaging in cardiac repair
Atrial fibrillation
Investigation of circulating and tissue biomarkers for outcome prediction in atrial fibrillation surgery o In-vitro measurement of atrial contractility
Transcatheter valve engineering
Development of a low-resistance pulmonary vein valve o Development of a transcatheter tricuspid valve o Cardiac valve engineering using 3D-printing techniques
Aortic valve repair
4D MRI hemodynamic analysis o Development of a novel annuloplasty concept in a sheep model
Valvular cardiomyopathy in patients with aortic valve disease
In-vitro measurement of contractility o Identification of circulating and tissue biomarkers (e.g. miRNAs) for prediction of persistence of reduced LV function after aortic valve surgery
Bicuspid aortic valves and bicuspid aortopathy
Identification of circulating and tissue biomarkers for prediction of progression of bicuspid aortopathy

Methods
Publications
Recent Funding

Methods
Methods:
- 3D-Modelling and 3D-Printing
- Bioluminescence Imaging
- Human induced pluripotent stem cells
- Myocardial Tissue Engineering
- Small and Large animal models for heart failure and cardiac and valvular repair
- Histology (Immunohistochemistry, Immunofluorescence, Confocal microscopy)
- Hemodynamic valve assessment using an FDA approved pulse duplicator
- Lentiviral transgene therapy
- qPCR, Western blot, Immunoessays

Publications

Publications:
1. Pecha S, Yorgan K, Rohl M, Geertz B, Hansen A, Weinberger F, Sehner S, Ehmke H, Reichenspurner H, Eschenhagen T, Schwoerer AP. Human iPS cell-derived engineered heart tissue does not affect ventricular arrhythmias in a guinea pig cryo-injury model. Sci Rep 2019;9:9831.
2. Petersen J, Kloth B, Iqbal S, Reichenspurner H, Geelhoed B, Schnabel R, Eschenhagen T, Christ T, Girdauskas E. Blunted beta-adrenoceptor-mediated inotropy in valvular cardiomyopathy: another piece of the puzzle in human aortic valve disease. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 2021 Jul 14;60(1):56-63
3. Weinberger F*, Breckwoldt K*, Pecha S*, Kelly A, Geertz B, Starbatty J, Yorgan T, Cheng, KH, Lessmann K, Stolen T, Scherrer-Crosbie M, Smith G, Reichenspurner H, Hansen A, Eschenhagen T. Cardiac repair in guinea pigs with human engineered heart tissue from induced pluripotent stem cells. Sci Transl Med 2016;8:363ra148.
4. Pecha S, Geelhoed B, Kempe R, Berk E, Engel A, Girdauskas E, Reichenspurner H, Ravens U, Kaumann A, Eschenhagen T, Schnabel RB, Christ T. No impact of sex and age on beta-adrenoceptor-mediated inotropy in human right atrial trabeculae. Acta Physiol (Oxf) 2020:e13564.
5. Querdel E, Reinsch M, Castro L, Köse D, Bähr A, Reich S, Geertz B, Ulmer B, Schulze M, Lemoine M, Krause T, Lemme M, Sani J, Shibamiya A, Stüdemann T, Köhne M, v. Bibra C, Hornaschewitz N, Pecha S, Nejahsie Y, Mannhardt I, Christ T, Hansen A, Klymiuk N, Krane M, Kupatt C, Eschenhagen T, Weinberger F. Human engineered heart tissue patches remuscularize the injured heart in a dose-dependent manner. Circulation. 2021 May 18;143(20):1991-2006
6. Petersen J, Lenz A, Adam G, Reichenspurner H, Bannas P, Girdauskas E. Changes in transvalvular flow patterns after aortic Valve repair: comparison of symmetric versus asymmetric aortic valve geometry. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 2021 May 8;59(5):1087-1094.
7. Berisha F, Götz KR, Wegener JW, Brandenburg S, Subramanian H, Molina CE, Rüffer A, Petersen J, Bernhardt A, Girdauskas E, Jungen C, Pape U, Kraft AE, Warnke S, Lindner D, Westermann D, Blankenberg S, Meyer C, Hasenfuß G, Lehnart SE, Nikolaev VO. cAMP Imaging at Ryanodine Receptors Reveals β 2-Adrenoceptor Driven Arrhythmias. Circ Res. 2021 Jun 25;129(1):81-94.
8. Pecha S, Reuter L, Ohdah S, Petersen J, Pahrmann C, Aytar Çelik P, Çabuk A, Reichenspurner H, Yildirim Y. Bionic Nanocoating of Prosthetic Grafts Significantly Reduces Bacterial Growth. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2024 Mar 6. doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c18634.
9. Grammatika Pavlidou N, Dobrev S, Beneke K, Reinhardt F, Pecha S, Jacquet E, Abu-Taha IH, Schmidt C, Voigt N, Kamler M, Schnabel RB, Baczkó I, Garnier A, Reichenspurner H, Nikolaev VO, Dobrev D, Molina CE. Phosphodiesterase 8 governs cAMP/PKA-dependent reduction of L-type calcium current in human atrial fibrillation: a novel arrhythmogenic mechanism. Eur Heart J. 2023 Jul 14;44(27):2483-2494.

Recent Funding

Recent Funding:
2017-2018: Forschungsförderung Dekanat UKE
2019-2020: Hamburg Innovation-Call for Transfer C4T C-2019-02
2019-2020: WIPANO Öffentliche Forschung-Weiterentwicklung von Erfindungen “Interventionelle Implantation von linksatrialen Schlauchklappen zur Therapie der Mitralinsuffizienz”
2021: DZHK Standortprojekt „Human iPSC-derived cardiomyocyte engraftment and cell distribution using different application techniques“ FKZ: 81Z0710118