Cardiac aging and heart disease in humans

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Marja Steenman1, Gilles Lande2

  • 1l'institut du thorax, INSERM, CNRS, UNIV Nantes, Nantes, France. marja.steenman@inserm.fr.

Biophysical Reviews
|May 17, 2017
PubMed

Insights

As people age, the heart undergoes changes that increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases like heart failure and atrial fibrillation. Understanding cardiac aging is key to improving prevention and patient care.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Gerontology
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • Global population is aging rapidly due to increased longevity and declining fertility.
  • Age is the primary risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs).
  • Prevalence of cardiac pathologies significantly increases with age.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To provide an overview of age-related changes in the heart.
  • To analyze functional, structural, cellular, and molecular changes associated with cardiac aging.
  • To identify common processes linking cardiac aging to age-associated cardiac pathologies.

Main Methods:

  • Review and analysis of existing literature on cardiac aging.
  • Examination of changes across four levels: functional, structural, cellular, and molecular.
  • Comparison of age-related cardiac changes with pathophysiology of heart failure and atrial fibrillation.

Main Results:

  • Identified specific functional, structural, cellular, and molecular alterations in the aging heart.
  • Highlighted shared pathways between normal cardiac aging and age-related cardiac diseases.
  • Demonstrated a correlation between aging processes and increased risk for heart failure and atrial fibrillation.

Conclusions:

  • Understanding the multifaceted changes in cardiac aging is crucial for advancing cardiovascular health in older adults.
  • Commonly affected processes in cardiac aging and pathophysiology offer insights into the age-related risk factor for cardiac disease.
  • This overview provides a foundation for developing targeted interventions for age-related cardiac conditions.

Keywords:
AgingAtrial fibrillationHeartHeart failure

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