Differences between physiological and pathological cardiac hypertrophy offer new strategies for treating heart failure

Funded Activity Summary

The heart becomes large both in athletes as well as in patients with heart disease and failure. In the first instance, the large (hypertrophied) heart has normal or even increased pumping ability (function) whereas in the patient with heart disease the function is depressed and the heart may fail. My studies are directed towards finding out what is the difference in these 2 situations and what mechanisms are responsible for making one big heart pump well and the other big heart pump poorly. Specifically my project hopes to identify the genes and proteins responsible for the differences. I have already identified one such gene and I now plan to manipulate this gene by overexpressing it in animals (transgenic mice) with heart failure. I predict that overexpression of this gene will improve heart function in models of heart failure. If the hypothesis is correct, activating genes that are activated in the athlete's heart maybe a potential tool for improving heart function, quality of life and life span in patients with heart failure.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2006

End Date: 01-01-2008

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $335,473.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Cardiology (incl. Cardiovascular Diseases)

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Cardiac hypertorphy | Cardiac hypertrophy | Cardiovascular disease | Heart Failure | Pathological heart growth | Physiological heart growth | molecular mechanisms

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