Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 8, 2026

Isolation, Transfection, and Long-Term Culture of Adult Mouse and Rat Cardiomyocytes
09:17

Isolation, Transfection, and Long-Term Culture of Adult Mouse and Rat Cardiomyocytes

Published on: October 10, 2020

The aging cardiomyocyte: a mini-review

D Bernhard1, G Laufer

  • 1Cardiac Surgery Research Laboratory, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria. david.bernhard@i-med.ac.at

Gerontology
|January 17, 2008
PubMed

Insights

Cardiac aging involves changes in cardiomyocyte repair, signaling, structure, and function. Intrinsic factors drive physiological aging, while extrinsic factors like smoking accelerate pathological aging of the heart.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Gerontology

Background:

  • Aging is an independent risk factor for reduced cardiac function and heart disease.
  • Aging-associated biochemical and cell-biological changes contribute to heart dysfunction.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review age-related changes in cardiac myocytes from youth to old age.
  • To discuss aging phenotypes and mechanisms affecting cardiomyocyte repair, signaling, structure, and function.

Main Methods:

  • Comprehensive review of existing literature on cardiac aging.

Main Results:

  • Key factors in cardiomyocyte aging include oxidative stress, inflammation, telomere integrity, metabolism, and gene expression.
  • Non-cardiomyocyte factors (vascular, fibroblast, extracellular matrix) significantly impact cardiomyocyte aging and cardiac function.

Conclusions:

  • Intrinsic aging factors are the primary drivers of physiological cardiac and cardiomyocyte aging.
  • Extrinsic factors, such as smoking, contribute to accelerated pathological aging of the heart.
Abstract

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