Cardiac pericytes

Pericytes are contractile cells wrapped around coronary capillaries that regulate the microcirculation. After myocardial ischaemia, pericytes mediate no-reflow - a failure to reperfuse capillaries even after the upstream culprit artery is unblocked (O’Farrell, Mastitskaya et al. 2017). Our recent work has shown that glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) protects the heart after ischaemia by activating ATP-gated K+ channels (KATP) on pericytes, preventing their constriction via a novel brain-gut-heart signalling axis (Mastitskaya et al. 2026). These findings open new therapeutic avenues for enhancing post-infarction outcomes. Using live tissue imaging, optogenetics, in vivo disease models, and transgenic mouse lines, I study how pericytes control coronary blood flow in health and disease. This project is funded by the British Heart Foundation (Intermediate Basic Science Research Fellowship FS/IBSRF/21/25060).