FRONTIERS IN HEART DISEASE RESEARCH: People above 50 years of age are the prime target of sudden death mediated by CARDIAC HYPERTROPHY. Hypertrophy generally is an age related disease that causes the enlarged size of a major kind of heart cells (called cardiomyocytes). This enlarged size significantly reduces the pumping efficiency of the heart. Cardiac Myocytes are amazing cells they have started breathing (or pumping) activities right in the fetus and continue to pump until death. Our Heart is a fatigue less organ but our hands and legs are not. Most age related hypertrophy that leads to heart failure occurs under normal cystolic function and not related to lipid profile (e.g. Cholesterol level). It is mostly diastolic heart failure. Although substantial progress has been made in the treatment of Systolic Heart Failure, however there are no specific therapies for patients experiencing Diastolic Dysfunction other than treatment to reduce just the disease symptoms. Very recently a talented group of scientists from Harvard School of Medicine under the leadership of Amy Wagers and Richard Lee have made a significant breakthrough in the treatment against this deadly disease “HYPERTROPHY”. They have identified a Factor called GROWTH DIFFERENTIATION FACTOR 11 (GDF11) from the blood circulation that could significantly reverses Age-Related Cardiac Hypertrophy. Their study has found that the level of this factor is under rapid depletion with age and this factor is an endogenous protection factor against Hypertrophy. The results of this study have recently been published in a highly regarded Journal “CELL”. This discovery raises enormous hope and enthusiasm for a real therapy against this Disease. The Result of the future clinical trial will tell if supplementation of this factor (made by Recombinant DNA) could CURE this disease in Human. cell/abstract/S0092-8674(13)00456-X
Posted on: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 00:17:21 +0000
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